From an article by Rod Nordland, in today’s New York Times (Wednesday, 3 February 2010), p. A4:
Dateline: Kabul
The NATO general in charge of training the Afghan police has some tongue-in-cheek career advice for the country’s recruits.
“It’s better to join the Taliban; they pay more money,” said Brig. General Carmelo Burgio, from Italy’s paramilitary Carabinieri force.
* * * * *
One in five recruits tests positive for drugs, while fewer than one in 10 can read and write — a rate even lower than the Afghan norm of 10 percent literacy. Many cannot even read a license plate number.
(And these are the people supposed to be taking over from NATO in less than a year’s time? Self has one more question: Why is this article on p. A4 instead of on Page 1?)