Defense Minister, Abul Rahim Wardak on his recent visit to Washington has said that Afghanistan will significantly reduce the number of its troops to 230,000 after the NATO withdraws in 2014. That indicates a twist in the plans of NATO and Afghan government. Based on earlier plans, Afghan national police and army are to reach 352,000 by the end of current year.
The reason, as has been forwarded by Wardak, is "a conceptual model for planning purposes" of an army, police and border-protection force sufficient to defend Afghanistan. Nonetheless, there are worries that Western partners of Afghanistan will not be able to fund Afghanistan especially its military expenditure for long after 2014.
American and other alliance officials acknowledge that the amount of money available for the Afghan security forces beyond 2014 is expected to drop to about $4.1 billion per year, a reality that would require a reduction in the size of Afghanistan's army and police force. Currently, all military expenses of Afghanistan - $7 billion annually -, ranging from food, salary and uniform to tanks, artilleries and aircrafts are funded by the international community.
As Afghanistan will move ahead and NATO troops will go back to their homes, Afghanistan will not only require a great number of soldiers to fight its enemies but also its soldiers should be sufficiently professional and equipped with modern weapons and war crafts. The necessities of Afghanistan's growing army and police will multiply after 2014 and with that their expenditures too.
A reduction in the number of forces may be a solution to tackle expense load but it cannot be an appropriate one. If you are to decrease the forces tomorrow, why to them increase today? The decrease would definitely have severe negative impacts. Saying goodbye to more than 120,000 soldiers, who would go unemployed, will not be an easy task.
If the US and allies desire to prevent Afghanistan from turning into safe havens for al-Qaida and other terrorists groups for sake of their security, they have to continue training and equipping Afghan security forces in the long run.