These are the 11,000 soldiers who might save Afghanistan - Washingtonpost

Despite more than $35 billion in U.S. support since the Taliban was driven from power here in 2001, the regular Afghan army is still broadly criticized as ineffective because of defections, timidity and an inconsistent command-and-control network. But U.S. and Afghan officials believe that the army’s commando and ­special-forces units can fill the void and should be sufficient to reassure nervous Afghans that the Taliban won’t be able to fight its way back into power.

“All of the things you read about in the news — the units keeping things from going very wrong” — are the commandos and special forces, said U.S. Army Col. Joe Duncan, commander of the Special Operations Advisory Group, which supports the Afghan National Army’s Special Operations Command (ANASOC). “You won’t find commandos laying down their arms and refusing to fight.”

But the Afghan army’s heavy reliance on its commandos is controversial, amid sharp disagreements over the effective deployment of elite forces. And especially this year, the stakes could not be higher for the commandos, as well as Afghanistan’s broader security forces, which comprise about 320,000 soldiers and police officers.

Still, the Afghan army’s heavy reliance on its elite forces is raising concerns over training disparities within the army.

With just 9,800 U.S. troops here, the American-led coalition limits hands-on training of traditional army units to a few large bases. Far more attention is given to commando units, which are trained down to the tactical level.

“When we have Americans with us, we feel very comfortable because we also have the best air support,” said Capt. Gul Mohammad Abrahimi, spokesman for ANASOC’s 6th Battalion. “But it’s not like it used to be. They used to be with us 100 percent of the time, and that turned into 10 percent of the time.”

The United States recently spent $19 million upgrading the school, but a severe electricity shortage limits indoor training on new weapon systems, tactics and first aid to six hours a day. There are not enough commando uniforms for everyone. And the mess hall and the dormitory were built to accommodate 600 trainees.

“There are only 16 toilets here,” said Sgt. Akbar Haz, a trainer at the school. “That is not enough for 1,000 men, especially in the morning.”

For an army at war, a far more fundamental concern is the lack of ammunition. To become an expert marksman, each commando should fire 5,000 live rounds over three months, but there were only 800 bullets per student when the new class arrived in late February, Wafa said.

“I keep asking [the Afghan Defense Ministry] for more, but they are saying they don’t even have enough ammunition in their own stockpiles,” Wafa said.

John F. Sopko, the U.S. inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, said the ammunition shortage reflects broader dysfunction and corruption within the Afghan army.

“We provide enough money, but the problem is getting that funding in the right place,” said Sopko, adding that the drawdown of coalition forces has severely limited the Pentagon’s ability to monitor how money is spent. “The [Afghans] doing logistics, many of them are illiterate, so it’s kind of difficult to ship rifles and bullets when the guys doing the logistics can’t read.” - Read More 

These are the 11,000 soldiers who might save Afghanistan