Friday, January 15, 2010

Finding The Right Ethnic Balance In The Afghan Army Is Becoming A Problem

Afghan recruits shortly before graduation from the Kabul Military Training Center. Yochi Dreazen/The Wall Street Journal

Cracks Are Appearing In Plan To Build Up The Afghan Army -- Times Online

Afghan soldiers surprised the roadside bombers as they laid a device south of Garmsir. According to one British officer familiar with the incident, there were five bombers. The Afghan army unit that found them had just lost three of their own to a roadside bomb. So three of the Taleban were killed by the road.

The architects of the military mission in Afghanistan face a finely balanced set of problems as they try to build up Afghan forces to 400,000 by the end of next year from their current 96,000 soldiers and 89,000 police.

Read more ....

My Comment: To assemble an army of 400,000 .... from scratch .... in only a few years. Who are they kidding?

1 comment:

Marcase said...

I'm worried about this large Afghan army (ANA), in the sense that what will happen to all those trained troops after the coalition leaves? Afghanistan can never fund this force by itself forever, or provide alternative jobs for so many (redundant) soldiers.

It'll be all to easy for the various local warlords/tribal leaders to scoop up these angry young & unemployed men, and it's tribal warfare all over again.