I hate to say, Hobo-ken, that despite what I have posted seeming to the contrary, I agree with you. Turning out a well trained Afghan National Army should be a huge priority.
But it is not, I repeat not, going to happen.
With the best will in the world to the training teams out there in a place that makes a banana republic look a very model of credible democracy, doing the job to the best of their abilities, they just will not have the time or political backing to finish the job properly, turning out a legitimate armed force to even say, pre-gulf war one Iraqi standards. They certainly will not be able to turn out a force that the Afghan body politic will accept as one they can deal with.
The Afghan National Police, meanwhile, is a joke that no side takes seriously, riven by corruption, vice scandals, drug dealing and all the other evils that failed state law enforcement is riven with.
The Afghan National Army may be better but that is purely relative. All training them further will do is spend more money, more time and more training teams lives for no real useful purpose. In any case, those that do turn out semi-competent will more than likely end up in civvies as better trained Taliban or Al Quada. (I hate that word, it has more spellings than is legitimate)
Given that to be the case, and I hope I am proven wrong in the next couple or three years, the training teams should be pulled out altogether or given other jobs to do that are in the long term, less futile.
And, yeah jk82, it does look like a certainty on finishing infantry training you will get posted out to Afghanistan.
Tam