Afghanistan Journal: Local Troop Training Fast-Tracked as U.S. Drawdown Looms - David Wood, Politics Daily.
With a full-throated roar, 2,000 proud new Afghan soldiers swung across a parade ground in an enthusiastic if imprecise goose-step formation. The latest graduates of the Afghan army's basic training course, they will soon head off to fight the Taliban, as their commanding general announced, "in the name of Almighty Allah.''
These new troops, smartly outfitted with American combat boots, uniforms and M-16 rifles, are the result of a determined push by the U.S. and allied command to "surge'' more Afghans into in a stalemated war in which American and European troops currently are doing most of the fighting.
By Aug. 1, the Afghan army will have grown to 134,000. That milestone is being reached two months early, thanks to an Afghan army pay raise that attracted new recruits and the injection into the basic training course of hundreds of battle-hardened American infantrymen as trainers and mentors. Training for Afghans has become tougher, stricter, more condensed. Fresh, well-equipped troops are charging out into the fight at a rate of a new 800-man battalion every 15 days...
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