The One Percent

Lt. Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, commander of ISAF Joint Command and deputy commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan, today attempted to push back against an Army whistle-blower's complaint that military officials are overselling progress in the country. In doing so, he dropped a statistic that shows just how steep the road ahead is. Scaparrotti told reporters at the Pentagon that 29 Kandaks -- units comparable to a battalion in size -- of the Afghan National Army and seven of the Afghan National Police had reached the highest capability category, "independent with advisers."

That comes to about one percent of the total size of the ANA and the ANP, according to Scaparrotti.

However, the three-star was more upbeat about the next-best category, "effective with advisers," attained by 42 percent of the Afghan security forces.

That's . . . been growing throughout, and that's really what we're trying to do . . . you know, that's half your force, nearly that -- effective with advisers. So they can operate; they need our enablers, they need some advisors to help them, and that's where we're at today.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said earlier this month the plan for Afghanistan is to scale back U.S. combat operations in 2013 while stepping up advising activities.