Another Record: Over 800 Afghan Troops Killed in 2010

25 Percent Increase Over the Toll in 2009

Afghanistan’s civilian death toll is a record in 2010. The NATO death toll in Afghanistan has been a record for months already. Now, completing the grim picture of the Afghan War the Obama Administration insists is going so swimmingly, the Afghan military’s numbers are in, and are another record toll.

According to the Afghan Defense Ministry some 806 Afghan National Army soldiers have been killed so far this year, by far the highest number since the 2001 US-led occupation began. It is a 25 percent increase over the 2009 toll, which saw 632 Afghan soldiers slain.

The rise is perhaps unsurprising, not just because the death tolls for all the other groups around Afghanistan are on the rise, but because NATO has been pumping so much effort into increasing the size of Afghanistan’s poorly paid, poorly trained army.

Unfortunately for them, NATO’s efforts to increase the size of this force have not only been struggling on the basis of their shortage of trainers, but because these jobs are often so dangerous that many of the soldiers abandon their posts after receiving a paycheck or two.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.