Paul Eaton Quoted by Agence France-Presse on Training Afghan Army

To avoid Iraq-style chaos, U.S. must back Afghans, experts warn

By Nicholas Revise and Daniel De Lucel

October 3, 2014 | Agence France-Presse

Washington will have to stand by Afghanistan for years, training and funding its army until Kabul can sign a peace deal with the Taliban, or it will follow Iraq in sliding into chaos, experts warn.

The United States must also work to ensure the Afghan army becomes one of the nation’s pillars, much in the way Britain achieved in India, said retired general Paul Eaton, who served in Iraq and is now an analyst with the National Security Network.

Britain’s legacy was to shape a force such that a young army conscript “believed in his country and would do audacious things, not for money, but for other soldiers and for the state of India.”

“That is a very much political evolution that takes many many years that can’t be done overnight.”

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