A pay raise in Afghanistan

Washington Post:

A recent pay increase for Afghan troops and police appears to have resulted in a surge of applicants, said the top U.S. military official for Afghan security training.

Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, citing Afghan statistics, said 2,659 Afghans had applied to join the security forces in the first seven days of this month, about half of the month's recruiting objective. In the three previous months, recruiting fell short of targets, with only 830 applicants in September, he said.

President Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan, which calls for 30,000 U.S. reinforcements next year, depends heavily on the rapid development of a well-trained Afghan force that can begin to take over security from U.S. and NATO forces. Afghanistan has about 97,000 troops and 95,000 police officers, but they are poorly trained, have high turnover rates and are prone to corruption.

Much of the cost of training and paying Afghan forces is borne by the United States and other nations, with a nominal percentage contributed by the Afghan government. An Afghan soldier costs about $25,000 a year to train, equip and maintain, compared with $100,000 for a U.S. soldier, according to Caldwell's staff.

Caldwell said that before the pay increase, projections suggested that the combined force strength would reach 216,000 in July 2011 -- when Obama said he wants to begin withdrawing U.S. troops. Caldwell said the goal under the new strategy is to boost that figure by then to 282,000, a 50 percent increase over current levels.

"It's clearly a challenge to get to that number, but that's a goal we're setting for ourselves," he told reporters traveling with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. "Realistically, we think we'll be between 250,000 and 280,000."

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Caldwell has been an innovative leader in the Army and looks like a good choice for turning around the Afghan army. If he is responsible for dealing with the pay disparity between the Taliban and the government, he is off to a good start. Instilling the army with some esprit de corps may be a more diffiuclt challenge.