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Afghanistan may introduce compulsory military service
Afghans may be pressed into compulsory military service against the Taliban in order to meet United States commanders' targets to nearly treble the size of their army.
Rapidly bolstering the overstretched and under-equipped Afghan police and military is viewed as critical to reversing the growing insurgency and one day allowing international troops to leave Afghanistan.
General Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO-forces in Afghanistan, said in his grim recent strategic assessment of the situation in the country that the army should grow from 92,000 to 134,000 in the next year.
t should then reach 240,000 as soon as possible, which commanders admit would need the recruitment and training of 5,000 men each month.
Afghanistan's ministry of defense said it was now drawing up plans for compulsory military service under a constitutional clause stating all Afghans have a duty to defend their country.