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AFGHANISTAN: Battling the Taliban With Soviet-Era Weapons

Fawzia Sheikh*

KANDAHAR, Oct 14 2007 (IPS) - In the dry Afghan heat a small band of hopeful soldiers, vying to become elite commandos, swiftly falls into line as drill instructor Lt. Abdul Hussein barks orders during a physical fitness exam.

Located minutes from the coalition-run Kandahar Airfield, a southern Afghan military base known as the 205th Hero Camp, that is marked by nondescript white structures known as connexes and a yard of old Soviet tanks, is the site of this morning&#39s test.

Sgt. Hussein Anwary, a 22-year-old from Herat province who has served for two years, eagerly talks to reporters about his "pleasure to be a soldier" and the chance to defend his country.

But though he believes the Afghan army can take the fight to the Taliban and other insurgents, he laments that his country&#39s armed forces have "weak" equipment, lacking body armor and air support like fighter jets.

Like most issues in Afghanistan, the debate about the military&#39s skill to act alone, as well as the availability of weapons and equipment, is a complex one.

The Afghan army is arguably well ahead of the police in its readiness to defend the nation, but is still wracked by equipment problems due to limited economic progress, a lack of maintenance facilities, slow-paced NATO weapons contributions meant to be a short-term solution ahead of American equipment deliveries, among other issues.

Brig. Gen. Gul Aqa Nahibi, who commands over 13,000 soldiers of the 205th Afghan army Hero Corps scattered throughout the southern provinces of Kandahar, Zabul, Helmand and Uruzghan, acknowledged that his corps&#39 arsenal stems back to the 1980s war with the Soviets and the civil war between mujahideen factions in the 1990s.

Speaking from his Hero Camp office, Nahibi, a 41-year veteran of Afghanistan&#39s army, said the Afghan military more recently has collected old weapons acquired from civilians but many are ineffective. He was quick to point out, however, that Western forces have provided combat and telecommunications vehicles as well as uniforms.

"It&#39s the coalition&#39s responsibility to equip the Afghan, as they promised the Afghan government . . . but they have a schedule," he said. His soldiers can carry out independent operations if properly armed, he said, adding that checkpoints stationed outside the camp are manned by Afghan National Army soldiers with coalition forces acting only in supportive roles.

Back in Kabul, Maj. Gen. Robert Cone, commanding general of the U.S. Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan, told IPS that the U.S. is on track to issue most weapons, including M16s and other machine guns, in the fall of 2008.

"What we&#39re really working to do is get donations from NATO right now in the interim until the U.S. weapons are available" but the process could be better, conceded Cone, the senior-most American general in charge of training and coaching the Afghan army. He said some countries have been quite generous, noting recent offers from Canada and a donation of some 1,500 brand-new weapons from Montenegro.

The security forces, seen as a prominent fixture throughout the country driving Toyota pickup trucks and similar light tactical vehicles, are in line to receive heavy trucks, he added. The process is 50 percent completed, he said.

"And again, my concern is getting it into the hands of the right people that can account for it and are not going to lose it," he stressed. "And that sometimes slows this process down. One of the problems you have is you can&#39t just give them equipment. You have to build maintenance facilities. They have to know how to maintain them otherwise they&#39ll just be broken down all over the countryside."

Cone said the debate on assigning vehicles has included questions about the extent to which the Afghan army and police should be "uparmored," since the country&#39s insurgency has featured fewer roadside bombs and suicide bombers than neighboring Iraq&#39s.

"This is an insurgency and you need the support of the people," he concluded. "And it is essential that the Afghan security forces can move in and among the people … without being, I think, decked out like an American soldier", known for travelling in conspicuous convoys of humvees.

To that end, certain force-protection items like body armor, helmets and a limited number of unarmoured vehicles will be issued to security forces operating only in "really high-risk areas", he told IPS.

Cone, echoing the earlier concerns of aspiring young commando Sgt. Anwary on the Afghan military&#39s need for close air support, said coalition forces have turned their attention to building systems such as logistics, command and control, casualty evacuation and air support.

Describing Afghans as fearless in combat, he went on to say there is no doubt several Afghan units can, and have, battled the Taliban on their own but he questioned whether they can do so "without needless loss of life". In some instances, at least on the logistics side, the best-performing Afghan units are ones that show initiative by operating apart from American systems, he said.

For example, one Afghan solution has been to scrap ready-made halal meals the U.S. military bought for local soldiers and instead ask field-ordering agents to buy and slaughter goats, he said.

"In my view that&#39s a success," said Cone. "I tend to think we have to look at different solutions for the Afghans and stop imposing sort of the Western standard for things like logistics. The Afghans were very happy that they happen to eat three hot meals a day as opposed to eating a lunch out of a plastic bag."

Despite coalition efforts to help develop a logistics system for the Afghan army, U.S. navy Lt. Col. John Matthew Anderson, a senior mentor of the navy garrison of the Afghan army&#39s 205th Corps, said nearly 30 years of war have exacted a huge toll on Afghan economic life. He has been posted in Kandahar since April.

"There&#39s no tax base and they literally do not have the financial resources to even have a supply system," Anderson said in an interview at Kandahar airfield. "The government brings in no revenue from the people of Afghanistan, so they have no money to buy bullets. They have no money to buy uniforms. They have no money to buy rifles, pick-up trucks," food, medicine and other supplies.

Summing up the country&#39s woes, Anderson doubted military logistics progress will be made until Afghanistan develops an economic base but acknowledged the war-torn country is hard-pressed to develop an economy until it achieves security.

Although the Afghan government is striving to attract investment, foreign aid drives the country in which the war-weary south sees little business development, said Norine MacDonald, president and lead field researcher of the international non government organisation (NGO) the Senlis Council.

Surprising pockets of success have emerged, though.

The absence of land lines has boosted the growth of cell-phone networks, offering people – including the insurgents – communications in even the poorest corners of the country, MacDonald, who is based in Kandahar, said in an interview.

Yet, arguably the most robust economic activity in the country is road-building financed by the international community, she told IPS. She said for the most part non-Afghan businesses lead these operations, hiring Pakistani and Chinese nationals and in the past rightfully prompting complaints from the Afghan government.

In the midst of Afghanistan&#39s uncertain economic future, the building of the military forges on.

The Afghan army&#39s 203rd and 209th Corps, in particular, have shown the greatest promise in leading operations against their enemies, said Cone, the American lead trainer. He predicted that certain Afghan units will be poised to carry out independent missions in the spring but will still rely on the coalition for casualty evacuation. He said the process of readying units will continue for about 18 months.

Regardless of international agendas to shape the Afghan security forces, the army&#39s ultimate effectiveness will be "in the mind&#39s eye of the Afghan people," he concluded.

"I&#39m reluctant to just to go to any kind of a timetable simply because I think it does not reflect the complexity of the task or the reality," he said.

(*Fawzia Sheikh was recently embedded with US troops in Afghanistan)