Strengths and Limits of the Afghan Warrior

Oct. 29, 2001 -- Dressed in little more than sandals and tunics, and armed with 20-year-old weapons, these are the men that will face the American military as it takes to the ground in Afghanistan.

These are men who also belong to a lineage of warriors, whose ancestors frustrated legendary conquerors including Alexander the Great and Tamerlane, and whose fathers and grandfathers repelled the British and Soviet empires.

Their prowess has long won them respect. Veterans of the Soviet Union's 1979 to 1989 war there described them as "wolves," "shadows," and "evil spirits."

On Wednesday, a Pentagon spokesman gave them their latest praise. "They are proven to be tough warriors. We're in an environment they are obviously experts in, and it is extremely harsh," Rear Admiral John D. Stufflebeem said.

There are countless tales of Afghans withstanding subhuman conditions, living for years in tunnels made from drinking wells, or marching through snowy mountain passes in bare feet and sandals.

Dale Davis, director of the International Program at the Virginia Military Institute, said the Afghans are also incredibly brave — sometimes to an absurd extreme.

In many battles with the Soviets, the Afghan warriors refused to lie prone while shooting at their enemies, he said. Instead, they exchanged fire standing up, considering that the only honorable way to fight.

Home Field Advantage

In addition to being hardened by years of war, Afghans benefit from ease with the forbidding terrain of their homeland.

The Afghans who fought the Soviets, widely known as mujahideen, often followed a strategy of attacking convoys in mountain passes. They would rocket the first and last vehicles, trapping those in between, and pick off the survivors as they fled into the unfamiliar surroundings.

Some were so experienced in these hit-and-run tactics that "they were more than a match for the Soviet elite troops who frequently made forays into the mountain areas," according to a 1989 U.S. Army report.

"They are like animals in the cracks," said Pavel Tsatouline, a former trainer for Spetsnaz, the Soviet special forces.

The mountains were even an advantage when the Soviets turned to air transport, said Georgi Derlugian, a former volunteer in the Soviet army and a professor at Northwestern University in Illinois.

Afghans climbed the towering peaks and mounted machine guns on them to shoot down incoming aircraft.

"Afghans have no respect for helicopters," he said.

The Army report highlighted a "particularly gutsy" strategy of the Afghans that they developed when they learned the varied features of their landscape made it difficult for them to be observed from the air.

"They had disciplined themselves to become immediately still at the first sight of an aircraft, even when in the open and very near cover," it said.

Double-Edged Sword

However considerable, the Afghan warrior's notorious ferocity and ease with his environment can also be a liability, experts said.

Davis, who worked as a Marine counterintelligence officer with the Middle East and South Asia, recalled instances where commanders tried to coordinate two mujahideen battalions, telling one to wait while the other one attacked.

But as soon as the first battalion met the enemy, the second one, not wanting to appear cowardly, ignored its orders and attacked too. "They all wanted to be what they call 'the tip of the spear,'" he said.

The Army report said the mujahideen often attacked "any nearby target, regardless of its significance," and that they "tended to fight only within own local areas."

Even the legendary Afghan commander Ahmad Shah Massood had to give up coordinating bands of fighters to defend his Panjshir valley, and instead taught them to attack strategically vital areas they were familiar with, the report said.

Stufflebeem declared that America was "prepared to take however long is required to bring the Taliban down." A familiarity with the strengths and weakness of the Afghan warrior will prove valuable.

What makes it crucial though, is America's plan to also rely on ground support from the Afghan opposition Northern Alliance.

In such an alliance, America will not only be fighting against the legendary Afghan warriors, but alongside them as well.