There now seems to be a palpable shift in the rhetoric from "defeating the Taleban" to "training the Afghan army".Canada's new top soldier in Kandahar has said he hopes Afghan soldiers will take on a larger security role in Afghanistan in order to reduce Canadian casualties.
"The way to essentially reduce the risk is to have again more Afghans doing the work," Brig.-Gen. Guy Laroche told reporters after he arrived at the Kandahar Air Field Friday night to replace Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant, who is leaving after a nine-month stay.
So here's a small prediction.
As Dave points out, the Afghan army is a billion bucks and several years away from being able to stand on its own in real terms. Public support here (and across the NATO states) is sinking so fast that even the Cons are likely starting to see their lethal little adventure is becoming a liability (both here and there) and are looking for a plausible way out (ie immune to accusations of lacerated jogging). So, the spin will change to what a great job we're doing training the Afghan army and then presto, one random day (say in a Friedman when, ahem, a/o the polls are low, a/o casualties are high, a/o the generals begin to write a resignation letters, a/o Pakistan fractures, etc) they'll declare the ANA trained and ready and bring the troops home.
At least it's a way out...
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