Outside View: Rebuilding Afghan tribes: "The Oct. 9 Congressional Research Office report 'Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security and U.S. Policy' says that from 2003-08 the United States spent nearly $10 billion training and equipping the current Afghan National Army force of roughly 90,000 soldiers. That is approximately $110,000 per soldier.
In his Aug. 30 report U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal states that the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police are not sufficiently effective to take ownership of Afghanistan's security. One of his four main pillars to accomplish the mission and defeat the insurgency is to increase the size of the Afghan National Security Force.
He said, 'The Afghan National Army must accelerate growth to the target strength of 134,000 by fall 2010,' a 50 percent increase in its present strength to be accomplished within one year."
