IS THE AFGHAN ARMY PULLING ITS WEIGHT - HARVEY
August 3, 2009 9:57 AM
Nick Harvey, Lib Dem Shadow Defence Secretary, notes: "In light of ongoing operations in Helmand, which have involved the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police, questions have been raised about numbers and operational effectiveness of the ANA.
"Clearly there are well-founded concerns over the ANA being able to pull its own weight. Despite recent gains insufficient ANA forces mean British troops cannot be freed up.
"Reports about shortcomings in its training and equipment programmes are particularly worrying and it is very notable that much of its hardware still dates from the Soviet era.
"If a greater proportion of the security burden is to fall to the ANA then assistance efforts must be stepped up. Ultimately NATO's commitment cannot be open ended so there has to come a time when the ANA is confident in its own abilities to counter the insurgents."
"At present we remain far from that stage."
These comments appeared in 'Eight years on, ISAF still waiting for Afghan troops,' by Patrick Macgill, defencemanagement.com 31/7/09:
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