Afghan Forces Are Praised, Despite Still Relying Heavily on U.S. Help

Afghan Forces Are Praised, Despite Still Relying Heavily on U.S. Help
As President Trump prepares to announce his Afghanistan strategy, American
and Afghan military officials appear to believe the plan will resemble what the Pentagon would like to see: authorization of 3,900 more American troops who would be used to continue to help train, advise and assist the hugely challenged Afghan security forces.
20, 2017
CAMP MOREHEAD, Afghanistan — In an hourlong ceremony in a valley a few miles southeast of Kabul on Sunday, more than 300 members of the Afghan National Army Special Operations Command stood at attention at Camp Morehead, a training base, as a succession of officials, American
and Afghan, told them how successful they had been at fighting the Taliban.
The bulk of the Afghan military and police forces are still well below the readiness and ability levels
that American and NATO war planners hoped they would have reached when they began training the country’s security forces in 2002.
"The Taliban have never won against the commandos and the Ktah Khas," added Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., the
commander of the Afghanistan war effort, referring to a unit of the Afghan special operations forces.
If Mr. Trump does not grant the Pentagon’s request for a more robust American troop level, there is concern
that the Afghan forces may not be able to even maintain the current stalemate, causing the country’s security situation to backslide further, and that Kabul, the capital, could come under more high-visibility attacks.
In an attack last month at the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul, only two civilians were killed, military officials said, noting
that the attack could have been much worse were it not for the fast response of the Afghan police special operations forces.