The general capabilities of the Afghan National Army are small-unit combat operations, offensive and defensive. By small unit, I'm talking about the section, platoon, company level of operations, a couple of hundred troops at a time in a combat operation. They can conduct, as I just said, both offensive and defensive operations.
In the south, they are engaged in every operation with the brigade led by General Fraser, which encompasses the six provinces in the south, plus British troops, Dutch troops, some Americans, Romanians, etc. The ANA participates in almost every one of those operations, and those operations are coordinated with the Afghan National Army corps commander, who is located in Kandahar City and is responsible for that same area. So it's not like we're conducting operations without them. They're coordinated operations.
I'm far too old and decrepit to have participated in direct combat operations, but the people who have will tell you that the ANA troops fight like tigers. They drive around in unarmoured Ford Ranger pickup trucks provided by the Americans, with a lot of pretty old Warsaw Pact-style weaponry—AKs, RPGs, and those kinds of things—and everything to them is a frontal attack. Everything.
The tradition in Commonwealth armies is fire discipline: teach your troops to control fire, conserve ammunition, and aim shots. The guys have given up trying to teach the ANA that, and they're teaching them ammo resupply instead. The ANA soldiers do not shirk.
How long will it take? It will take years before they're ready to go without any trainers at all. You could see a point where they may not need as many manoeuvre forces from the international community, but they will need trainers, mentors, and helpers into the future. How long? I can't answer that.