Washington, December 09: The United States has set a goal to train four lakh personnel by 2013 in Afghanistan, of which 240,000 would be for Afghan National Army and 160,000 Afghan National Police.
Appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, General Steanley McChrystal, the commander of the US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, said by July 2011 he expected the combined strength of the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police to be around 300,000.
“I believe that we need to significantly increase the Afghan national security forces.
I recommend that we stay on a very aggressive timeline to try to reach that, but adjust those goals on two things: One, if the insurgency size decreases, it might be able to be adjusted, and also the ability of the Afghan government to provide recruits, retention and those things, which enable the growth,” McChrystal said.
Top US military and diplomatic leaders along with the US lawmakers during a two Congressional hearings at the US Capitol felt the need to make it a top priority to strengthen and increase the size of the Afghan national security forces which is capable enough to transition security responsibilities from the American forces beginning July 2011, a date set by US President Barack Obama last week.
“There is not yet enough Afghan National Armour or Afghan National Police,” McChrystal said, adding that there are not yet an Afghan National Army to meet everyone’s requirements.
–PTI