A steady stream of difficult news continues to come out of Afghanistan - stories about the resurgent Taliban and ongoing terrorist threats, the inadequacies of the Karzai government and corruption, casualty rates including civilian deaths caused by the enemy and from both alleged and verified coalition actions.

All of these realities swirl about those of us serving in Combined Joint Task Force Phoenix, and after almost six months of "boots on the ground," sometimes we wonder if we are making a difference.

Unlike the other task forces in the coalition that are pursuing the enemy or providing security, this team is here to train the Afghans so they can secure their own nation. Our task force is basically comprised of trainers and mentors for the Army and Police and others who are here to support and secure those trainers and mentors.

Our teams are distributed all around Afghanistan and co-located with Afghan units and police. And the reality is that even though our total task force numbers almost 9,500 military, coalition partners and civilian professionals, we are some 2,300 mentors short of requirements to properly support the growing Afghan forces.

In an earlier entry, I covered the mandate for the international community to help the government of Afghanistan raise and train its own security forces so it can maintain the rule of law, protect its own people and secure its nation independently. Due to its tribal history and culture, Afghanistan has never had a strong central government. For this reason, outsiders have preyed on the people in this region and that certainly includes groups such as the Taliban.

In addition, many of Afghanistan's leaders in the past have emerged from the ranks of warlords, drug lords and criminal elements. Clearly the effort to bring about a new Afghanistan through the democratic process is probably best described as very much a work in progress, and there is a long road ahead.

Afghanistan is an example of what can and does happen to nations where, for various reasons, governments that should serve the people are absent. Various groups seek to gain power by force. Even when it was in power from the late 90s up to Sept. 11, 2001, the Taliban never controlled the whole country. The Northen Alliance led by Ahmad Shah Massoud still resisted the Taliban up until his assassination in the days just prior to the terrorist attacks.

So the U.S. and coalition forces pushed out the Taliban in the fall of 2001 and now are assisting the legitimate government of Afghanistan improve and reform itself as its security forces are also being raised in the form of a volunteer army and police.

At this time there are roughly 65,000 trained Afghan troops in companies, battalions, brigades and corps that are improving daily in their abilities to conduct independent counterinsurgency operations. At the same time, there are more than 76,000 trained Afghan National Police operating in Afghanistan's districts and provinces.

Afghanistan is about the size of Texas and the population is estimated at about 28 million. I think it is useful to consider some other figures when it comes to evaluating the security situation that is present at this time in Afghanistan - to keep a perspective I will use our home state of New York, since I am a member of the New York National Guard.

Here are some census numbers: New York state has an estimated population of 19.3 million. According to the extrapolated data, more than 209,000 of that population serves in protective services occupations, which I read as police officers, troopers and sheriffs.

Inside that number is the NYPD, which is about 38,000 strong and serving the population of New York City, which is about 8.3 million. Also helping to keep the people of the Big Apple safe are police officers of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Metropolitan Transit Authority, whose number are likely included in the rollup. There are more than 4,600 uniformed officers of the New York State Police, too.

The census says there are nearly 40,000 New Yorkers serving on active duty in America's armed services. but I don't think that figure includes the 10,500 Army National Guard or 6,000 Air National Guard. Nor does that include the other reserve forces from the Army, Air Force, Navy or Marine Corps.

More than 95 percent of America's service members are not just literate. They at least have high school degrees or the equivalent and many have college degrees. All officers have to have college degrees, and many like me also have graduate degrees. America's military and law enforcement training programs are intense, complex and highly advanced. Our government, social and political institutions are mature to say the least and certainly dynamic. America is built up with tremendous infrastructure, transportation systems, educational facilities, health care, sanitation … the list goes on. It is also the world's leading economy.

Afghanistan is a nation and a people that was locked in the prison of feudal conditions and thinking. Gen. David Petraeus was recently quoted as saying that rebuilding was needed in Iraq but "building" is needed in Afghanistan. The Afghans I have met never want to go back now that they have a chance to move up. They want and need our help, and most know its going to take a long time.

Our nation had its struggles and establishing the rule of law and maintaining proper security was and remains a building block to what we as a nation now have and hope to have in the future. History tells that it wasn't easy for us and the process wasn't always orderly either.

I share a lot of pride with my comrades over here in the belief that we are making a difference, albeit slowly. So I am taking some of my own advice and trying to keep some perspective with all the negative news and the setbacks and delays that are happening over here.

My friends are not discouraged. In fact, I think even after six months here their determination hasn't even come close to peaking yet. The trainers and mentors are taking pride in the progress the Afghan troops and police show, even if at times they seem to stumble backward. They are commited to their nation and they are making sacrifices here daily.

We believe in our mission here. We hope and believe that the Afghans we are helping today will grow and build a better Afghanistan for their own families tomorrow and they will look to us friends who stood by them when they needed us. And that is a message I want to bring back to those at home. This is hard. This is taking a long time. This is expensive. We need to do this.

Lt. Col. Paul Fanning is submitting photos to accompany this blog in a gallery, "Pictures from the Front." To view the gallery, click here.