Afghan Army in Action

According to the BBC, the Afghan army under the control of the central government in Kabul has seen its first combat action as part of a campaign in the south against Taliban-al-Qaeda remnants. One finds some interesting information about the composition of this army and their local reception in this IWPR report. I hate to rain on the parade again, but after all this time we've apparently managed to train only 1000 troops. Herat warlord Ismail Khan alone has around 25,000. The U.S. is really still working with individual warlords and "tribal militias" in the south, who have at best a loose affiliation with Kabul. I'm not saying we could do significantly better, necessarily...just calling it like I see it.