G.I.s reporting to Polish CO

In the next few weeks, a company of U.S. soldiers is scheduled to set up camp in southeastern Afghanistan and report directly to a Polish lieutenant colonel.

A similar swap is in the cards for a Polish company and an American battalion. This signals an increased willingness in the U.S. military to selectively mix and match regular infantry units with allies in a combat zone.

As recently as a couple of months ago, the Polish military had no more than a couple of hundred troops operating in Afghanistan, mostly engineers and de-mining specialists. Now there are about 1,200 in Afghanistan, nearly half of them special forces personnel.

The move was in response to "a request from NATO to increase the number of troops in the eastern theater" of Afghanistan. "Poland decided to set the example for the
other European NATO nations, which are not very eager to supply personnel.

NATO's call for reinforcements came late last year, so Poland's response was relatively quick, given the country also has about 1,000 troops in Iraq.