Karzai considers 'conscription' to build Afghan army. What happens to hearts and minds forced to war

[bigtree]

. . . against their fellow Afghans?


MUNICH - Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday he is looking at instituting conscription to build an army big enough to provide security without international help.

Karzai told a conference of the world's top defense officials in Munich that he wants to build and train an army and police force of 300,000 by 2012 that will be able to provide security for Afghanistan by 2015 without international help.

Within five years, "Afghanistan should be able to provide security for its people so we are no longer a burden on the shoulders of the international community," he said.

"For the past many years I've been visited by Afghan community leaders who are advising me to go back to some form of conscription for the Afghan army so the young boys of the Afghanistan countryside can ... come to training centers, get acquainted with the rest of the country, get familiarized with other young men around the country and learn something and go back home," he said.

"This will be philosophically one of our pursuits as we move ahead into the future in consultation with the Afghan people."


read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35281089/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

. . . be all that you can be, in the anti-insurgency.

[theoldman]

1. The draft worked for us in several previous wars.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Lead meets balloon. Piss meets wind.