Quote Originally Posted by Red Rat View Post
Or you train an effective civilian police force whose primary focus is law enforcement. In areas where they are unable to carry out their policing duties they are escorted by ANA to provide the force protection. The UK did this in N Ireland. High threat areas saw the police escorted by the army, low threat areas the police did it themselves. It meant the police were trained and equipped to be police and did not have to turn into a paramilitary force.
General Scaparotti in regional east has been promoting an idea called Combined Action (you may have heard of it). CA has 4 components: the ANA, the ANP, ISAF, and the Afghan Government. CA allows the Afghan government to reach out to the environment while being protected while the ANA monitors the ANP and ISAF has their resources available to provide backup. So far, CA has been very successful. I do like the idea of having ANA patrol with the ANP because they'll keep the ANP from peroforming corrupt activities and will offer a "security arm."

Quote Originally Posted by Red Rat View Post
Last but not least, a police force is only the tip of the spear. How effective is the rest of the Afghan judicial system?
This is very true. The overall system is very fragile.

The US government should consider establishing some sort of civilian police force that can deploy abroad to help in situations like Afghanistan. The Italians have one, the French have theirs, so it is possible.