New U.S. Afghan strategy will cost billions, take years
President Barack Obama’s choice to take charge of the war in Afghanistan Tuesday called “significant growth” of the Afghan army and national police the key to his strategy, but the annual cost of building and maintaining the existing Afghan force is more than four times larger than the entire Afghan economy.
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“We are building an army they will never be able to afford,” a senior U.S. military official told McClatchy . The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to reporters.