Creating an Afghan Army May Cost the U.S. $1 Billion

The United States is investing big money -- about $230 million -- to train, feed and house the first 9,000 soldiers in the new Afghan national army. With two Kabul-area bases and a training center, that amounts to this country’s largest public works project.

Washington is shouldering the heavy burden because a well-trained and well-housed armed force loyal to the central government is essential to Afghanistan’s emerging from decades of chaos and violence.

A functioning army is also a prerequisite for the 8,500 U.S. troops based here to go home one day.

But ask U.S. government officials here about the cost and timetable for outfitting the rest of the 70,000-strong army and they hedge a bit.

Officials say they want to be sure that the authority of the first batch of troops is accepted by Afghans generally and that a U.N.-sponsored program to disarm militiamen loyal to regional warlords is successful before they commit to paying for the rest of the job. That could cost upward of $1 billion.

The structure of the new army beyond the Central Corps, as the 9,000-man first phase is known, “will be determined by Afghanistan’s emerging national and military strategy, the pace of economic reconstruction [and] domestic security requirements,” a top U.S. official said Friday in a statement made on condition of anonymity.

Other U.S. officials say there is as yet no definite plan or budget to train and deploy the 61,000 additional military and civilian personnel envisioned for the new army in the so-called Bonn agreement on Afghanistan’s future, brokered by the United Nations in December 2001, and by a Karzai decree last December.

The additional troops and support personnel would be grouped in four additional corps or commands in as yet undetermined sites around Afghanistan.

Training efforts are concentrated now on there being at least 8,000 soldiers deployed by June 2004, when national and provincial elections are due to be held. That’s the minimum U.S. officials think is needed to enforce the election results, especially if a disenfranchised warlord wants to dispute them.

So far, about 4,000 recruits have been graduated by their U.S. and French trainers.

June 2004 is when U.S. officials will assess the army’s performance and future and make decisions accordingly, sources say.

For now, the most powerful Afghan armed forces are the 100,000-plus militiamen under control of various regional warlords. They often do more to disturb the peace than safeguard it and are to be phased out under a demobilization and disarmament program of the militias unveiled by the United Nations and the Karzai government this month.

Whether the warlords and their minions agree to lay down their arms and follow through on their pledges of fealty to the Karzai government remains to be seen. The success of the disarmament program could depend on a variety of factors, including the availability of job alternatives for the militiamen.

In any case, disarmament is crucial to the new army’s success -- and to the Karzai government’s extending its authority beyond the capital.

Lingering doubts about the new army’s ability to supersede the militias are what give some in the U.S. government pause about committing the hundreds of millions of dollars that will be needed to train and house the rest of the troops for the new army.

Other officials affirm the U.S.-led coalition’s commitment in Afghanistan to the long-term creation of an army and are confident that the necessary funds will be forthcoming.

“We are in this for the long haul -- Central Corps is indeed the first step in the building of the four major commands,” the unnamed official said in his statement.

The $230 million the U.S. has committed to spending so far is enough to pay for a refurbished army training center and two bases east and west of the capital. The troops that already have been trained now occupy the Pol-i-Charki base, 13 miles east of Kabul.

The base includes the refurbished remains of a bombed-out military complex originally built by the Soviet Union. New buildings are being added by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Initial classes of Afghan recruits suffered high attrition rates because of poor accommodations and low pay. But the U.S. military hopes the high living standards at the new bases will end up being recruiting magnets. With 24-hour electricity, self-contained sewage and water systems, and paved roads, the bases will offer a lifestyle better than that enjoyed by the vast majority of Afghan citizens.

“For the new army to succeed, it needs a good place to sleep, to eat and to pray, so soldiers’ spiritual needs are met,” Army Maj. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry said Friday at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Pol-i-Charki mosque and brigade headquarters building. Eikenberry heads the Army’s training effort.

After the ceremony, recently graduated Afghan army Pvt. Abdul Samad said: “As human beings, we prefer to be in a place where we can be strong, learn something and be happy. When we in the army are happy, the entire country will be happy.”

Samad also noted that soldiers are already happier because they recently received a salary increase from $50 a month to $70.