KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - An army isn't built overnight and in the case of Afghanistan there's little chance its military will be ready to safeguard national security on its own any time soon.
There has been plenty of talk and even more optimism in this war-torn country that Canadian and NATO troops will be able to eventually leave here - guilt-free and with the satisfaction of a job well done.
But the training is slow. Even though the words `tough' and `fearless' are inevitably used to describe the members of the Afghan National Army - the fact is they are too few and too inexperienced in the ways of war to come close to taking control of Afghan security needs.
Some of it appears to be cultural as the Afghan outlook on life tends to be a bit more laid back than in Canada or the United States.
Mentors from the Canadian Operational Liason Mentoring Teams spend weeks and months teaching the rudiments of soldiering to Afghan troops. Extra training is given to promising Afghan soldiers as engineers or in explosive ordnance disposal. But it is hard to say when the Afghans will be ready to take over.
"You know, they're not a western army. They're their own army so we have to manage expectations of that. So they've got their own way of doing things and their own way of training, their own way of planning so you can't impose a western way on them," said Lt.-Col Dave Gowdy, chief engineer for Regional Command South and the commanding officer of the Canadian contingent at RC South.
"You can try and understand how they want to do things and eventually they will get there but it's going to take time," he admitted.
General Rick Hillier, the former Chief of Defence Staff for the Canadian Forces, raised the matter two years ago on a visit to Kandahar.
"I think most Canadians, living in the incredible country that we have, don't always see all the complexities of trying to rebuild a country and, in some cases, build a country from the 25 years of destruction that took place in Afghanistan," Hillier told reporters at Kandahar Airfield in Oct., 2007.
"You just don't build that overnight and the international community will have to be involved for some time to see this through to the final level where you've got a government that works effectively," Hillier said.
"It's going to take 10 years or so just to work through and build an army to whatever the final number that Afghanistan will have, and make them professional and let them meet their security demands here."
Gowdy said the Afghan army has made progress but more so in some areas than others.
"Absolutely. You've heard of transfer of lead security responsibility? That's when they take over. In some regions they are probably already at that level to do that," he said.
Lt.-Gen. Marc Lessard, the head of Canadian Expeditionary Force Command addressed the matter of Afghan security when he wrapped up a visit to Kandahar last week.
"Do we have complete Afghan lead for all operations? No. It's one thing to have more ANP, more Afghan National Army, but for me the critical thing is having Afghans take the lead," Lessard told reporters.
"I think Canadians don't realize what Afghanistan is. It's a non-developed country, one of the poorest countries on this planet, that went through 30 years of war," he explained. "All at once we wanted to reconstruct Afghan security forces, governance and development. I think we had high ambitions and maybe we were overly optimistic."
One area that remains a problem is the progress being made by the Afghan National Police. The police lag far behind the Afghan army in terms of training, leadership and there's still plenty of corruption.
Until the Afghan National Army is up to snuff said Lessard - the police will fail to reach expectations.
"The police were used and still are used as paramilitary - supplementing the ANA," said Lessard.
"What we have to do is to train them to be able to survive, to be able to do military tasks and gradually as we expand the Afghan National Army it will permit the police to do certain tasks."
