When President Obama unveils his proposal for the escalation of the Afghan War, he will reportedly reject General Stanley McChrystal’s strategy to double the size of the Afghan military over the next few years.
Instead the president will discuss what is being called a more “realistic view” of growing the large but ineffective Afghan military, which will lack the timetable of McChrystal’s plan.
The general has sought to increase the Afghan military to 240,000 members and to increase the size of the nation’s police force as well. Though adding more people to the Afghan security forces never seems to be a problem, corruption, poor training and high turnover rates have kept the force from being effective.
The announcement is expected to provoke a backlash from Democratic Senators, who have seen creating an enormous Afghan military as the key to eventually ending the war. It will also make it more difficult for President Obama to sell the idea that the war isn’t open-ended.
