NATO teams train Afghans on the front line

[unhappycamper]

NATO teams train Afghans on the front line
By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU
Associated Press Writer
Nov 27, 3:30 AM EST

As President Barack Obama prepares to pour up to 35,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan, a much smaller contingent of NATO trainers - many of them European - form a crucial part of the strategy to win the war and get foreign troops home.

The 1,500 trainers from 20 countries live with Afghan forces on the front lines. Their goal: to improve the skills of soldiers in the field, part of the effort to build up the army and police so they can control the country on their own.

Afghan and international troops have now become "true partners, working, planning, fighting and living together," Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. military official in Afghanistan, said last Saturday at a ceremony launching a beefed-up NATO training mission. Their work "is the foundation" of U.S.-led efforts in Afghanistan, McChrystal said.

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged U.S. allies this week to commit additional forces, particularly for training, in anticipation of Obama's expected decision to send more troops. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that several allied nations will offer a total of 5,000 more troops. The U.S. president plans to announce a revised battle plan for Afghanistan in a major speech on Tuesday.

Thousands of Afghan recruits are being coached at a base near Kabul to try to bring the army up to 134,000 men by October 2010 from 94,000 today. The NATO trainers, divided into 62 teams, carry on that work in the field.

Rest of article at:; http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AFGHAN_FRONT_LINE_TRAINERS?SITE=DCSAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT



unhappycamper comment: Does this mean we're gonna stand down as they stand up? Good luck with that.