Afghan army improves, but still lacks leaders

[unhappycamper]

Afghan army improves, but still lacks leaders
By William H. McMichael - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Jun 1, 2010 17:42:20 EDT

The much-maligned Afghan National Army has shown significant improvement in quality over the past six months and is on track to meet numeric goals, a top U.S. trainer in Afghanistan said Tuesday. But the Afghan army has a “critical shortfall” in enlisted and officer leadership, he said, and lacks the self-sustainment it needs to develop to become an independent and capable force.

In fact, quality — rather than quantity — is the new watchword at the NATO Training Mission — Afghanistan, said Army Brig. Gen. Gary Patton, deputy commander of that unit and the Army Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan for the past 6½ months. He is responsible for NATO efforts to train and develop the Afghan army.

“We’ve changed the approach to training,” said Patton during a telephone interview with defense reporters. The new focus, he said, is “standards-based training.” In addition, he said the command has “reversed the negative, and some cases stagnant, growth trends,” taking an army that in November was flat-lining in terms of growth and that is now growing faster than expected. The command has taken some steps to build an enduring foundation” in terms of creating an army that can sustain itself in the future.

“The Afghans that I’ve met, and from the top of the leadership chain to the bottom, they all want to be self-sufficient,” Patton said. “They would be self-sufficient today, … but they’re not resourced to do it now. So they recognize we’re here to help them now.”

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