December 7, 2007: Afghanistan is going to expand
its army to about 200,000, if it can get foreign allies to donate enough money
and trainers. The current army is expected to complete its training by the end
of next year, when it will reach its planned strength of 70,000. There will
also be a national police force of 82,000. Previously, the largest peacetime
army Afghanistan ever had was in the late 1970s, when a Russian trained force
of 90,000 (with over a thousand armored vehicles) was raised. This did not
last, as a civil war broke out, and the Russians invaded in late 1979. A year
later, most of the army had rebelled or deserted. When the Russians left in
1989, they had rebuilt the Afghan army to 45,000 troops. That force disappeared
in the next five years, as the nation descended into civil war. The Taliban won
that war, but never had a standing force of more than 20,000, and these were
largely militia, with one brigade of fanatical, and deadly, al Qaeda fighters.
The current army has been trained to Western
standards, by NATO instructors. By Afghan standards, it's a pretty effective
force. Nearly tripling its size will take several years, if the same training
methods are used. The thousand or so Russian tanks the Afghans had in the late
1970s, are nearly all gone to scrap, chicken coops, or roadside reminders of
the Russian invasion. The Afghans are reequipping with Cold War surplus German
Leopard tanks. The air force is shopping around for cheap fighters, and
counter-insurgency aircraft. The Afghans are receiving a lot of Cold War
surplus Russian helicopters from Eastern Europe and Russia.
The Afghans want a larger force to deal with the
Taliban insurrection, the growing power of the drug gangs, and possible trouble
with Pakistan or Iran.
