General Craddock: Equipment and training Afghan Army remains the key to stability

Opinions Briefing with General Craddock

“A survey by the Asia Foundation found that nearly 90 percent of the Afghan people interviewed trust the Afghan national army. And we believe that it's well on its way to reaching the current end strength of about 70,000 by 2010. And that means filled, trained, equipped, competent leadership, capable of operating on their own.”  The Supreme Allied Commander Europe, US Army General Bantz J. Craddock said at Pentagon.

General Craddock highlighted the key elements for stability in Afghanistan in a Pentagon briefing on 10 October 2007.

“We have to do more to train and equip the Afghan national army and secondarily the Afghan national security forces, which means the police, but NATO's task right now is the Army.” General Craddock said in his speech.

Furthermore General Craddock focused his speech on the importance of sustaining NATO’s commitment in Afghanistan and the long term investment and development efforts by the international community as well as he underlined the importance of the coordinated application of the military and civilian instruments in order to achieve greater effect of aid from other organisations such as United Nations, the World Bank, the NGOs and international organisations.

Finally General Craddock talked about the need for a continued engagement with Pakistan to decrease border crossings by the opposition military forces and the importance of NATO’s support to counter the growth of narcotics in Afghanistan.”