During my tour, one of our big challenges was systems and training. The Afghans have designed an Afghan National Army training command led by a three-star, and we're in the process now.... Our big challenge is to build beyond the level of basic training. Now a soldier enters, he gets a little bit of basic training, he heads to the field, away he goes. Officers have the same thing, but that lasts for only a few months. What we need are the service schools, the schools to teach the officers higher-level concepts. That is all a train in motion right now. We will build an Afghan defence university. Those are things that are under way.
Canada is providing the assistance to build the junior officers staff corps. During my tour, I saw 88 young Afghans graduate from their equivalent of military college. That was the first graduating class. The Taliban had shut it down. That's very much a work-in-progress. For me and for the command, it's one of our major focuses. We are years away from having a viable education system, but we've laid the foundation.