FREDERICTON — A high-ranking Canadian soldier who is assuming a key role in Afghanistan says Canadians need to temper their expectations ahead of a planned pullout in 2011.

Brig.-Gen. Steve Bowes, who has begun a one-year deployment as the International Security Assistance Force's deputy chief of plans and projects, said the public shouldn't have delusions about quick success in the war-torn country.

"Afghanistan does not have the capacity to become what we would like it to be," Bowes said in a recent interview.

"Despite the best of intentions, we must guard against viewing the problem through western eyes only."

Bowes, who left CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick last month, will spend the next year based in Kabul to help implement policies, plans and procedures dictated by the commanding general.

He said the process of establishing peace in Afghanistan would be arduous, but not impossible.

"It takes decades and centuries for societies to develop," he said.

An observer of the conflict said he worries the public won't understand Canada's real success story in Afghanistan, even if troops are withdrawn in 2011.

Lee Windsor of the University of New Brunswick said real success should be measured in the number of Afghans employed in a legitimate and functional farm economy.

"The more people who are employed in this legitimate farm economy, the fewer people going to be growing opium for the drug rings or being directly employed by the Taliban," said Windsor, the deputy director of the university's Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society.

"The Afghans themselves, in Kandahar, have rebuilt the farm co-op system to buy a regenerated cash crop system of nuts, dried fruit, apricots, grapes, pomegranates and the things Kandahar has been noted for as an exporter traditionally."

Windsor said Canadian troops have been instrumental in the reconstruction of roads, culverts and canals that are helping to improve the Afghan economy.

"I think soldiers who go there -- especially soldiers like Steve Bowes who was there at the beginning, and will now be there close to the end of the full-scale deployment -- will see the difference," Windsor said.

Both men admit that problems with the command structure in Afghanistan have been an issue when it comes to achieving success in the region.

Bowes said that's why the ISAF command is splitting, and creating the new headquarters that he'll be part of.

"Creating a headquarters that focuses on the day-to-day operations and works with the regional command structure in Afghanistan ... I think that's a significant step in the right direction," he said.

Windsor said unifying the international effort will continue to be a major challenge with 60 different countries involved in Afghanistan.

But he said the public needs to know the Canadian efforts to rebuild the agri-business sector has given Afghans legitimate employment and reduced the number of Taliban recruits.

"It is a success indicator that we lose sight of, and arguably it is a decisive one," Windsor said.