KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 16, 2007 – The Afghan National Army is making tremendous progress and is a factor on the battlefield, officials here said today. Progress has been slower for the country's national police, however. Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the commander of Combined Forces Command Afghanistan, said that the progress of the army is truly impressive, particularly given the status of Afghanistan when officials began forming this force in 2002. Afghanistan had a 20 percent literacy rate, and the country had limited infrastructure and no political structures or army. “I was here in 2002-2003 when we began this process,” Eikenberry said. “I used the expression in 2003 that we, the United States, wanted the Afghan army more than the Afghans did. I came back in 2005, and I was using the expression that we wanted the army about as much as the Afghans did.
“Now I will firmly tell you in 2007 that the Afghans want this army more than we do,” he continued. “And that’s the critical metric. We can help train and army, we can help equip an army, we can help build facilities for the army, but only the Afghan people can breathe a soul into that army.”