10,000 US soldiers have already said good bye to Afghanistan. At the end of this, 23,000 more US soldiers will leave Afghanistan. The process of withdrawal will continue until 2014 when all foreign forces will abandon Afghanistan. It is important to mention that this is not the first and the only time the Afghans are witnessing withdrawal of foreign troops from their country. Twenty years back the former Soviet Union withdrew its forces from this country that led Afghans towards the bloody-ever civil war in the history of Afghanistan. About a century ago, the British forces left Afghanistan after they failed to win a victory here. Whoever has called Afghanistan 'the grave yard of empires,' has rightly said.

The withdrawal process goes on with NATO forces transitioning security responsibilities to Afghan National Army and Police (ANA&P). By the end of spring, nearly half of Afghanistan will fall under Afghan control. Will the Afghan forces be able to defend their country on their own after NATO troops withdraw?

The question is on every Afghan's mind. But according to Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, Head of Security Transition Commission, the next three years are crucial and decisive for the fate of five generations of Afghans. Five generations? Speaking in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarahar – the next province where transition is to take place this month - he said, "The security personnel will be equipped and core national interests promoted over the next three years."

Nobody is sure what condition will prevail in post-2014 Afghanistan. Even Mr. Ghani does not seem confident on capability of Afghan forces to tackle security challenges ahead of Afghanistan. He talks about coming three years. Indeed, things that could not be accomplished in the last ten years seem improbable to be achievement in a short period of three years. ANA&P has a long way to go to become professionally competent.

Talks of transition of security responsibilities to Afghan forces come at times when Ministry of Defense said yesterday that a man in an Afghan army uniform opened fire on a group of Americans at a base in Zabul province, killing a U.S. soldier and wounding another. On Dec. 29, an Afghan soldier shot and killed two members of France's elite 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment, a part of the Foreign Legion.

A week earlier, an Afghan soldier opened fire on coalition troops inside an outpost in western Herat province, wounding a number of alliance troops. These and many such incidents in the past where Afghan soldiers have opened fired at their foreign counterpart or mentor clearly indicate that insurgents have infiltrated the ANA & ANP.