Our top general in Afghanistan thinks the Afghan military is ready to start taking the lead in the fight:
Marine Gen. John Allen told The Associated Press that the main job over the next two years for the International Assistance Force — as the NATO-led troops in Afghanistan are called — will be to advise, train and build the capabilities needed for Afghan forces to go it completely alone.
They will face their first test when the fighting season gets under way in the late spring and summer. During the harsh Afghan winter, snow often blocks roads and fighting dies down.
Hopefully the general has been paying more attention to Afghanistan than to the Florida CENTCOM social circuit to make this assessment with a clear head.
Don't get your hopes up too high for the Afghans to "go it completely alone." France, as we've seen all too clearly, couldn't do it alone with 3,500 troops in Mali without allied logistics and intelligence support. The Afghans, with an army a hundred times larger than the French expedition, won't be self sufficient ever, unless the threat level goes down dramatically to make Afghan security force capabilities gaps relatively unimportant.
