DTN News: NATO Training Mission Seeks To Enable Afghans To Make The Difference Themselves

DTN News: NATO Training Mission Seeks To Enable Afghans To Make The Difference Themselves *Source: DTN News / British Ministry of Defence (MoD) dated January 15, 2010 (NSI News Source Info) KABUL, Afghanistan - January 16, 2010: Any success achieved in Afghanistan will be dependent on the Afghans themselves, the Commander of the NATO Training Mission in the country said yesterday, Thursday 14 January 2010. Afghan soldiers in a training session [Picture: Roy Bacon, Crown Copyright/MOD 2008] Lieutenant General William Caldwell, from the US, is the Commander of the NATO Training Mission - Afghanistan, where a number of British soldiers are currently working. He spoke to the media from Kabul about the Training Mission via a live satellite link at a special invite-only briefing in the MOD's Main Building in London yesterday. Explaining the function of the NATO Training Mission in Afghanistan which, based in Kabul, began operating in November last year, Lt Gen Caldwell said that the overriding aim is to generate the Afghan National Security Forces, both the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police. He said: "What we do is we grow and develop the Afghan National Army, from producing numbers, to running the schools, to providing the trainers and the instructors." He added that as regards the Afghan National Police, the major aim is to reform it. Lt Gen Caldwell has been in command of the Training Mission for two months. He said that previously the mission had been under-resourced both in terms of materials and trainers. He also highlighted the problem of actually getting recruits to join both the military and the police. But, he continued, there are now about 41 nations contributing to the mission, with either equipment or personnel, and funding has increased. He said: An Afghan police trainee practises shooting on the range [Picture: Copyright NATO 2009] "We do have sufficient funding to do our job. The predominance of that money comes out of the United States Congress in America, but it enables us to do what we need to do in terms of the funding to both grow the army and the police forces, and part of the army includes the air element too, the air force." Lt Gen Caldwell said that he also has 840 American soldiers about to join his Training Mission who will be immediately tasked with training members of the Afghan National Army and Police. This, he said, will have a significant impact on improving the quality of the training that is given as well. The attrition and recruitment rates into the Afghan National Security Forces have also improved, the General said, in part he suggested due to better pay rates, with a soldier's pay having gone up significantly and the police now on the same rates of pay as soldiers. Lt Gen Caldwell said: "We're focusing on all levels of the Afghan National Security Forces. It takes time to develop leaders, yet if we're going to sustain what we're doing here and put it in place so that it is able to be self-sufficient, we've got to involve leaders, and so we're putting full stress there on how we can get at and work at leader involvement. "Right now, we are moving towards our objectives of 134,000 personnel for the army and 96,000 for the police." A member of the Afghan National Army fires a Russian D-30 artillery gun on Artillery Hill [Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2009] On success in the overall mission in Afghanistan, Lt Gen Caldwell said: "Success can be achievable, but, at this point, I would not see it as a foregone conclusion. "That success is going to be ultimately determined by having a full partnership with the international community, and that, ultimately, any success that we do achieve is going to be dependent on the Afghans themselves. "And it's they who have to make the decision that they're going to make a difference here in this country. "There's no question as we look at the international soldiers that are deployed over here, they're dedicated to their mission and they believe in what they're doing. "I've had the opportunity to travel round this country in the last eight weeks, and visit with many of them, and they're the best that each of our nations have. "But, ultimately, it's the Afghans themselves that are going to have to make the difference here."