Afghan troops reach 240,000 goal earlyBy Jim Michaels, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — NATO has reached its goal of expanding the size of Afghanistan's army and police to 240,000 three months ahead of schedule, achieving a key measurement that will be used to gauge progress in the war.
The size and quality of Afghan security forces will be a central part of a review that the White House will be conducting in December to measure the effectiveness of its strategy of emphasizing protecting civilians in Afghanistan.
The improved recruitment and retention follow a pay raise and improvements in a payroll system. NATO has also increased the number of trainers dedicated to working with Afghan soldiers.
"Before we were training them very quickly and throwing them into the fight," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a member of the Armed Services Committee. "It didn't work too well."The quality of the recruits is also improving, according to statistics. A year ago, only about 25% of the soldiers graduating from basic training passed a weapon-qualification test. Today, between 90% and 95% pass the test, said Jack Kem, deputy director of the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan.
unhappycamper comment: "It didn't work too well." :wtf:
Nine years, half a trillion dollars, 1223 dead American soldiers and all Graham can say is "It didn't work too well"?