Creating the Afghan Army

It's not an easy job and will take lots of time. More from Doug Schmidt of the Windsor Star:

SABLAGHAI, Afghanistan - "The Taliban will kill me if I talk to you ... it's a little dangerous," Sardar Mohammed tells a reporter through a Pashto interpreter.

Sardar casts a nervous glance toward the curious who are gathering beyond the dozens of heavily armed soldiers and Afghan police, backed by tanks, armoured vehicles, explosives-sniffing dogs and specially trained military extraction teams massing next to a nearby closed school. The interpreter says the Taliban and their spies lurk everywhere in this rural village pocket in the Zhari District that is still not securely held by Afghan and international forces...

...hidden among those coming home are remnants of the Taliban.

As the armoured units spread out to form protective cordons, heavily armed foot patrols are being formed to start a neighbourhood search, compound by compound, room by room. While bolstered by plenty of foreign military muscle, they're being led by Afghan National Army (ANA) troops mentored by Canadian officers.

If Canada and the soldiers of 36 other countries on this UN-sanctioned mission are ever to leave this strife-torn country, it will be the ANA and Afghan National Police who will have to be relied on to shoulder the security burden. Neither of these two national security forces existed four years ago.

"This is an eventual exit strategy ... the ANA are here to stay," says Capt. John Benson, head of a five-man Operational Mentor Liaison Team (OMLT). Benson is among the first group of Canadians to be mentoring Afghan soldiers, picking up on an idea inherited last fall from the Americans and now in practice by the seven largest coalition partners...

Laven, like many Afghans, goes by one name, is young but responsible for a household of 10 in his native Kabul. Fighting for the past year, he says he last saw his wife and kids six months ago.

That will soon change, promises Lt.-Col. Jean-Marc Lanthier, head of Canada's OMLT teams that total 64 officers. He and other army brass praise the courage and skills of the Afghan soldiers, but the young national army is struggling with the basics, including paying, housing, feeding and otherwise caring for the grunts who do the fighting...

The Afghan army currently stands at about 36,000 soldiers with the goal being 70,000 by the end of next year. Entry-level soldiers get "decent pay, not tremendous," says Lanthier -- US$100 a month for what can be very dangerous work.

Also in March, soldiers will begin seeing deductions in their pay to support new pension and disability benefits, as well as to provide health coverage for their families.

But building an army, especially one where many of its soldiers are illiterate, takes a lot of patience. Despite what politicians back home are saying about Canada's current commitment lasting another two years, "nobody expects us to pack up and leave in 2009," says Lanthier. "We're going to have to be here for quite a bit longer."..[emphasis added]