DEBKAfile doesn’t have links to individual stories, so I’m reprinting a large part of this one. I haven’t seen it mentioned in Western media yet, but if true it could be very big news: Russia is preparing to deploy a ground army in Afghanistan, with up to a million men.

America�s deficiency of ground forces for combating terrorism is the direct outcome oft the collapse of the international anti-terror coalition doctrine. The diplomacy employed by US secretary of state Colin Powell to muster this coalition stripped the United States of the fighting strength needed for the campaign itself. The four nations with the right kind of fighting strength are India, Taiwan, Israel and Turkey. The first three had to be counted out, while Turkey was only retained as a pro-American reserve for securing the Turkish-Iraqi frontier and standing by in case anti-US turbulence got out of hand in Central Asia and Pakistan.

Therefore, Washington has painted itself into a corner with only two options: Declaring a military call up at home � partial, then full conscription, with all the political hazards entailed, or turning to the only other power which commands a substantial military force, whose enlistment will not jeopardize US long term goals - Russia.

DEBKAfile�s sources in Moscow report that in the last ten days, the lights in the planning and operations departments of the Russian armed forces have burned brightly round the clock, as staff officers draft the blueprints for the Russian army�s return to Afghanistan in a manner very different from its dismal experience in the 1980s.

This time, Russian troops will be going in on a huge scale to fight shoulder to shoulder with their erstwhile foes, the Americans. The Afghanistan intervention force will be made up of roughly quarter of a million combat troops and an equal number of rest air force, intelligence, logistical and services personnel.