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KABUL- NATO’s Supreme Allied commander made a plea Wednesday for allied countries to send more troops to Afghanistan to help train the fledgling Afghan national security forces.

Touring the National Military Academy of Afghanistan, Adm. James Stravridis requested NATO member countries send an additional 2,000 troops to expand the training mission.

“We have to put fuel in the car of transition,” said Stavridis. “The only way we are going to approach success in Afghanistan is by training our way to success. We are not going to kill our way to success. We are going to train our way to success.”

Accompanying Adm. Stavridis were two Permanent Representatives to NATO – Boguslaw Winid of Poland, and Pascale Andreani of France.

American military commanders hope both countries will send additional non-combat troops to speed up the development of the Afghan Army and Police. But US officials face an uphill climb convincing their NATO allies to send additional troops.

As violence has escalated in Afghanistan, support for the war has decreased dramatically in Europe and Canada. The growing public frustration has already forced two NATO allies to withdraw from Afghanistan. This summer the Netherlands withdrew its troops, and Canada is schedule to leave Afghanistan in 2011.

Still, despite the war’s unpopularity, Adm. Stavridis painted a picture of progress.

“The army has grown by 40,000 in the last 10 months and is on track to meet the goal of 172,000 by end of 2011,” said Stavridis. “We’ve seen a lot of progress so far but we still have a lot more to do in order to make sure we get the transition underway in July 2011.”

US and NATO officials believe they can significantly increase the size of the Afghan security forces during the next year – and with the help additional trainers begin handing over security responsibilities to Afghans next summer.

However, as the Afghan security forces have increased in size, the quality of recruits has lagged. Illiteracy and corruption remain a “significant problem.”

“Quantity is not enough,” said Gen. William Caldwell, the head of NATO’s training mission. “Quality is an essential ingredient of professionalism. It’s the foundation”

US commanders believe literacy courses and a revamped training curriculum will over time improve the quality of both the police and army.

Despite the hard sell by Adm. Stavridis and other US officials no NATO country has yet offered to send more troops. In fact, NATO has yet to fulfill last year’s pledge of 10,000 additional troops.

“We need more trainers. It’s real simple. If we can reach in for more. We will see even more progress,” said Adm. Stavridis.