U.S. steps up just as Poland hopes to pull-out

Polish troops marching. Photo by Getty Images.

Today, Polish troops in Afghanistan received back up in the form of 1,000 U.S troops.

Poland scrambles for a definitive timeline to pull out of Afghanistan. Polish forces have occupied the eastern province of Ghazni since 2003, when  NATO troops took control of ISAF ( International Security Assistance Force, a UN Security Council operation.

Until Today, Polish troops were struggling to keep a grasp on the Taliban-controlled province, notorious for it’s level of violence.

Troops in Ghazni, Afghanistan. Photo by Honolulu Advertiser.com

In a brief article published by the Warsaw Voice, American troops will now take over operations in the regions most dangerous areas in the east.


Maxed out at 2,600 troops in Afghanistan, Poland will switch its focus to the country’s main highway, which runs through Ghazni.

As of Monday talks of troop retraction from Afghanistan was mainly based on the instability and lack of progress made in the Ghazni region.

Taliban has taken control of many of Ghazni’s districts. Along with the Taliban, Polish troops are also dealing with an ethnic Pashtun majority, who tend to be more violent.

Map of Afghanistan including Ghazni region.

Since 2001, Poland has spend over $ 1.5 million on its military presence and $5 million on development projects within the region.

According to the BBC, Poland’s next agenda item will be training the “nearly 8,000 afghan personnel to ensure peace in Ghazni”. So far, only about half of that 8,000 have been trained.

Col Lukasiewicz, a former Polish defense attaché, makes several claims as to the present state and future of Afghanistan.

"Our withdrawal would be decided by our performance rather than a date."

Experts have criticized that performance as being too focused on military accomplishments, and not focused enough on development.

As recent as June 2010, Poland issued an official plea for its NATO allies to come up with a timeline to pullout of Afghanistan with senior officials saying that NATO was facing a “ strategic catastrophe” in Afghanistan.

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