WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- The international troop commitment to Afghanistan comes just in time, though the road will be long, notes retired U.S. Gen. Barry McCaffrey.
McCaffrey in an independent assessment of the revised war strategy for Afghanistan said military forces are facing a confident and advanced enemy in the Taliban.
The general, now an adjunct professor of international affairs at West Point, says the Taliban are active with shadow governments in as many as 160 of the 364 districts in Afghanistan, warning that they believe they are winning the war.
"The Taliban think they have the moral high ground," he warned.
U.S. President Barack Obama placed an emphasis on boosting the Afghan capability to handle their own security in his revised war strategy to take on the Taliban. McCaffrey, though optimistic on the military prospects, said the Afghan police are another story.
"It will take a decade to create an Afghan national police force with adequate integrity," he said.
Obama announced he was sending another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan along with thousands of civilian trainers. NATO ministers, meanwhile, said they would commit an additional 7,000 troops to support the International Security Assistance Force.
"ISAF is reinforcing just in time to rescue the deteriorating tactical situation," McCaffrey said.
