Afstan: NATO and US forces' roles

This is interesting; I wonder what it means in reality, especially when the eastern region comes under NATO command.

NATO’s expanded role will allow the United States to move some American troops from southern Afghanistan to the eastern region where the bulk of the 22,000 American soldiers in Afghanistan are deployed in provinces along the border with Pakistan.

Other American forces are engaged around the country in training the fledgling Afghan National Army in counterterrorism operations and in reconstruction. Some 3,000 American soldiers in southern Afghanistan were to come under NATO command as of Monday.

An additional 10,000 or so of the remaining American forces will come under NATO command in the fall as the alliance assumes command for the eastern sector of the country as well.

Counterterrorism operations will remain under United States command [my emphasis - MC], and they will have authority to operate in any part of Afghanistan under an agreement with NATO, said Col. Tom Collins, the chief United States military spokesman.

The planned drawdown of 3,000 American troops from Afghanistan, announced by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in the spring, has not materialized in the face of the surge of violence...