Afghani-stan's forces will be "good enough" to take over its security by the end of 2014, even though only a small number of them now operate independently from Nato-led troops, a top US general said Wednesday. Lieutenant General Curtis Scaparrotti, deputy commander of US forces and the head of the Nato-led force's joint command, acknowledged that Afghan army and police still had a way to go to manage their country's security without major assistance from foreign troops.
But he rejected a more pessimistic view voiced by some in and outside the US military, including an American officer - Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis - who accused his superiors of glossing over the failings of Afghan forces in an article published this week.
Some American soldiers in the field have been critical of their Afghan partners, Scaparrotti told a news conference, but the Afghan forces have been built up over a short period and could not be compared to a US standard. "At times, a (US) private will tell me they're not that good. But a private's looking at it from the perspective of how he's trained, or the Marine's trained, and the standards are very different," the general said.
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