A wise midcourse correction

A wise midcourse correction

Kansas City Star: The last few weeks have been among the most deadly for U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan, where the death toll recently topped 500.

Given that, a Pentagon plan to retool the military command structure and dramatically increase the size of the Afghan army makes eminent sense.

Augmenting the Afghan army — a plan recently endorsed by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates — will cost $20 billion over five years. The Kabul government initially urged the idea.

Under the proposal, the Afghan army would nearly double to 120,000 troops, with additional equipment and training from the United States.

In addition, the awkward split in command structure that has hampered operations will be corrected. The 19,000 U.S. troops involved in direct combat operate separately from the command overseeing NATO units.

The NATO commander — a U.S. four-star general — would receive command of most American troops along with the NATO units.

Sooner the better

Two new U.S. brigades are expected to be deployed to Afghanistan next year. The sooner this can be accomplished, the better.

A more unified command structure should improve operations by allowing U.S. and NATO units to support each other more seamlessly.

One complicating factor for the NATO operation is that only British, Dutch and Canadian troops can participate in the full range of combat operations. Units from other countries face unfortunate restrictions on the sort of missions they can be given. After the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, most NATO units expected to be involved mainly in reconstruction and peacekeeping.

In recent months Taliban attacks have increased greatly, and the Pentagon response is welcome. It would be inexcusable to allow the situation to continue to fester without an appropriate response.