Small Wars Journal

Obama Is Betting His Whole Afghan Plan on These Commandos

Wed, 05/28/2014 - 5:58pm

Obama Is Betting His Whole Afghan Plan on These Commandos by Kimberly Dozier, The Daily Beast

No matter how many troops President Obama keeps in Afghanistan, or how fast they leave, it’ll be the Afghan forces that keep the country together—and its special operations troops that provide the teeth.

These troops have learned to perform the hard way: under fire by insurgents—and sometimes by their own government—for working alongside the Americans. Those combined stresses have ironically forced the elite forces to become more independent faster. Every time outgoing Afghan President Hamid Karzai ordered them to stop working with NATO while charges of a drone misfire or alleged illegal raid were investigated, the troops were forced to tackle the Taliban and other insurgent groups on their own.

But those pauses in cooperation have also revealed the Afghan special operations forces’ shortfalls…

Read on.