Skip to main content

Afghanistan National Army To be Expanded to 134000

By Sikander Hayat



Barack Obama declared that Afghan National Army will be increased from 80000 to 134000 and according to The Economist:

“Central to the review is the idea of increasing the size of Afghan security forces. The additional 4,000 soldiers will come from the 82nd Airborne Division to southern Afghanistan, in part to support the Afghan army and in part to offer more training. The local army is due to grow from 80,000 to 134,000 by 2011, and some of the proposals speak of expanding it to 250,000. The police, too, would be boosted. The cost will certainly run into billions of dollars. But this is probably cheaper than continuing to fight the Taliban with Western troops”.




This is a welcome development as a strong Afghan army is the key to the future of strong and peaceful Afghanistan which will be free of ‘cancer’ of Al-Qaida. This newly expanded army should represent the ethnic mix of the country and give Pashtuns a majority in the personnel and officer class. Then and only then this army will not be considered an occupying force but the Army which represents it people and want to protect them with their blood.



Also it will be good for the relations of the Afghanistan & Pakistan if some of the officers of this new Afghan army are trained in the Pakistan Military Academy of Kakool. This academy already trains officers from the freindly countires in the South Asia and from Arab world.

Comments

  1. Sikander,

    Who is going to pay for this army?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good question, anonymous, exactly what I was going to ask.

    How can it be an Afghan national army if the US and NATO are paying for it? If they pay for it, then it must be a US/NATO army, albeit one made up of native auxiliaries.

    It would inevitably take orders from its foreign imperial paymasters, not the Afghan government, let alone the Afghan people. It would therefore remain part of the foreign occupation force.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good point, AnthropoidApe. I am a US citizen and I voted for President Obama so that he would change our foreign policy and take our military forces out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

    I am not pleased with President Obama's policy. It is not going to result in peace. Does anyone agree with me?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving comments. You are making this discussion richer and more beneficial to everyone. Do not hold back.

Popular posts from this blog

Siege - A Poem By Ahmad Faraz Against The Dictatorship Of Zia Ul Haq

Related Posts: 1.  Did Muhammad Ali Jinnah Want Pakistan To Be A Theocracy Or A Secular State? 2. The Relationship Between Khadim & Makhdoom In Pakistan 3. Battle for God; Battleground Pakistan - a time has finally come to call a spade a spade 4. Pakistan - Facing Contradictory Strategic Choices In An Uncertain Region 5. Pakistan, Islamic Terror & General Zia-Ul-Haq 6. Why Pakistan Army Must Allow The Democracy To Flourish In Pakistan & Why Pakistanis Must Give Democracy A Chance? 7. A new social contract in Pakistan between the Pakistani Federation and its components 8. Birth of Bangladesh / Secession of East Pakistan & The Sins of Our Fathers 9. Pakistan Army Must Not Intervene In The Current Crisis - Who To Blame For the Present Crisis in Pakistan ? 10. Balochistan - Troubles Of A Demographic Nature

India: The Terrorists Within

A day after major Indian cities were placed on high alert following blasts in the IT city of Bangalore, as many as 17 blasts ripped through Ahmedabad, capital of the affluent western Indian state of Gujarat . Some 30 people were killed, some at hospitals where bombs were timed to go off when the injured from other blasts were being brought in. (Later, in Surat, a center for the world's diamond industry, a bomb was defused near a hospital and two cars packed with explosives were found in in the city's outskirts.) Investigators pointed fingers at the usual Islamist suspects: Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Bangladesh- based Harkat-ul Jihadi Islami (HUJI) and the indigenous Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). But even as the police searched for clues, the Ahmedabad attacks were owned up by a group calling itself the " Indian Mujahideen. " Several TV news stations received an email five minutes before the first blasts in Ahmedabad. The message repo

Mir Chakar Khan Rind - A Warrior Hero Of Baluchistan & Punjab Provinces of Pakistan

By Sikander Hayat The areas comprising the state of Pakistan have a rich history and are steeped in the traditions of martial kind. Tribes which are the foundation stone of Pakistan come from all ethnic groups of Pakistan either they be Sindhi, Balochi, Pathan or Punjabi. One of these men of war & honour were Mir Chakar Khan Rind. He is probably the most famous leader coming out of Baloch ethnic group of Pakistan. Mir Chakar Khan Rind or Chakar-i-Azam (1468 – 1565 ) was a Baloch king and ruler of Satghara in (Southern Pakistani Punjab) in the 15th century. He is considered a folk hero of the Baloch people and an important figure in the Baloch epic Hani and Sheh Mureed. Mir Chakar lived in Sibi in the hills of Balochistan and became the head of Rind tribe at the age of 18 after the death of his father Mir Shahak Khan. Mir Chakar's kingdom was short lived because of a civil war between the Lashari and Rind tribes of Balochistan. Mir Chakar and Mir Gwaharam Khan Lashari, hea