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'Sort of a Wild Card'

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'Sort of a Wild Card' washingtonpost.com: . And His U.S. Partners Page 1 of 4 . And His U.S. Partners Wounded Army Captain Details Offensive Against Taliban By Peter Finn Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, December 11, 2001; Page A01 LANDSTUHL, Germany -- They went in at night in mid-October, 11 members of the U.S. Army 5th Special Forces Group, dropped into a valley deep inside Taliban territory in central Afghanistan. This austere, wild gash in the earth, the soldiers remarked to one another, looked like "the back side of the moon." Out of the darkness stepped Hamid Karzai, today about to be interim leader of Afghanistan, then merely the head of a modest militia force that the United States hoped could galvanize the Pashtun tribes of southern Afghanistan against the Taliban authorities. Over the next six weeks, the small and isolated American unit would fight alongside the ever-growing force of Karzai, calling in airstrikes and firing weapons to repel a fierce Taliban counterattack. It would negotiate with tribal leaders and advance with its Afghan allies to within 20 miles of Kandahar, the Taliban's last major stronghold. "My focus was taking Kandahar, that they'd surrender to us," recounted Capt. Jason Amerine, the unit's commander. "Taking Kandahar, as I saw it, was probably going to be the end of the war." Kandahar fell last week, but Amerine was not there to see it happen. His unit's mission was cut short on Wednesday when an errant U.S. bomb killed three Americans and five of their Afghan allies, and wounded about 40 other Americans and Afghans, Amerine among them. The tall, lean West Point graduate is now recuperating from shrapnel wounds in a U.S. military hospital in Germany. With another wounded member of his team, Staff Sgt. Brad Fowers, 24, he provided in a two-hour interview the most in-depth account to date of what U.S. Special Forces have done out of sight on the ground since the U.S. bombing campaign began Oct. 7. He declined to reveal key operational details. Amerine, who is scheduled to fly home in the next few days, said he wants the men who lost their lives that day to be honored as well as mourned. "I don't want them to be remembered for how they died, but what they did beforehand," he said. The 5th Special Forces Group, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., had been in a Central Asian country for nearly six weeks on Sept. 11, with the mission of training local forces. Amerine declined to identify the country, but U.S. Special Forces are known to have conducted some training for Uzbekistan's armed forces. Operating in Central Asia and surrounding countries was the group's specialty. Some members had studied local languages. Amerine, for instance, speaks Arabic and another member of his team speaks Persian. On Sept. 11, someone from the local U.S. Embassy alerted the team to the events in the United States, and members watched the BBC broadcast as events unfolded at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The men quickly packed and returned to Kentucky, where an order soon arrived to head for Afghanistan. 'Sort of a Wild Card' "Our mission was to work with Hamid Karzai, who at the time was sort of a wild card," said Amerine. "He was our biggest hope for a good Pashtun leader that could really rally the people and bring legitimacy and change to the government." First, however, the team deployed to a country bordering Afghanistan. There members studied intelligence, planned logistics and worked up a profile of their potential allies. "We need to have almost like an anthropological background on the people we're working with in order to work with them properly," said Amerine. "We need to know the customs to follow." In military jargon, their field of combat behind enemy lines is called the "denied area," a place where soldiers are on their own but can call in help through the lifeline of communications equipment. "We could go in there naked with flip-flops and http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22725-2001Dec10?language=printer 12/16/01 washingtonpost.com: . And His U.S. Partners Page 2 of 4 as long as we have good radios we could do our job," Amerine said. In mid-October, the Americans flew into Afghanistan. They landed -- whether by parachute or helicopter, Amerine wouldn't say -- and Karzai greeted them in the dark in fluent English. The Americans hastily loaded their equipment onto a mule train their allies had brought. The Afghans were clearly amused at the young Americans weighed down with firepower and communications equipment; Karzai's men, if they had weapons, each carried a single assault rifle and a few magazines of ammunition. "We were kind of like newborn babes trying to get used to the environment, trying to get used to the people," said Amerine, who is from Honolulu. "We knew we were among friends, and they were all very warm and receptive." They trekked through the night for several hours with the mules. The Americans were at first disconcerted by the Afghans, who blithely waved flashlights around as they moved across the difficult terrain. As morning appeared, they entered a village of clay homes with 60 to 80 families. "I've got to admit I was almost giddy because it was . like out of a movie," said Amerine, who would not name the village but said it appeared battered by earlier wars. The U.S. soldiers were shown to a carpeted room inside a dwelling enclosed by a large outer wall. The Afghans invited them to sleep and again were amused when the Americans insisted on patrolling to ensure they were secure. The next three weeks were devoted to planning. "We had to start from scratch to build up a force that was viable to fight the Taliban," Amerine said. "We began to help them organize, help them equip themselves . getting them arms, getting them ammunition." The troops also arranged food and blanket drops for the locals. Amerine and Karzai also began to size up each other. "I had to get to know that he was more than just another politician and he had to get to know what my underlying agenda was," Amerine said. "I was real careful in the beginning not to be very pushy." Days were spent sitting cross-legged among tribal leaders who argued fiercely about matters Amerine understood only through Karzai's translations. "I drank a lot of green tea with Hamid Karzai during late nights," Amerine said. Karzai mostly listened before interjecting firmly but quietly to end the yelling matches. "He was in charge; he was real soft- spoken," Amerine recalled. "There was never any need for him to raise his voice. He has a very stately demeanor about him." At first, Karzai had a very modest force, but the village quickly flooded with volunteers arriving day and night. The U.S. troops conducted some basic training, but the Afghans broke down along tribal lines and could not be organized into anything approaching platoons or companies. "Initially, there was a great deal of concern about Americans being around," Amerine said. Karzai "was concerned that some of the locals might be unsettled about Americans being in their back yard." Over time, those fears subsided. U.S. officials have said that at about this time, a U.S. aircraft extracted Karzai from Afghanistan as Taliban fighters closed in on him. But Amerine's account included nothing about such a rescue. Karzai's plan, Amerine said, was to take the Uruzgan provincial capital of Tarin Kot, which sits 70 miles north of Kandahar in a valley with four major approaches. "He told me early on that Tarin Kot was the heart of the Taliban and he said if we could squeeze the heart of the Taliban and crush it, then the Taliban would be through," Amerine said. "I thought it would be a long time before we were ready to take Tarin Kot. He was very confident that he could just walk into the town and it would be his." And in the end, that is what happened. The locals, prompted by some intense diplomacy by Karzai via satellite telephone, revolted shortly before the Muslim observance of Ramadan began on Nov. 17. Karzai announced that it was time to move. "We piled on and had this crazy convoy and drove right into Tarin Kot," Amerine said. "Every kind of vehicle, soldiers armed to the teeth hanging on." Arriving at night on the 17th, Karzai and the U.S. soldiers moved into the governor's mansion, where a tribal council was http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22725-2001Dec10?language=printer 12/16/01 washingtonpost.com: . And His U.S. Partners Page 3 of 4 immediately convened. Taliban Mounts a Challenge Soon there was word of a challenge. "We got a warning that the Taliban had launched a massive group of people north who had left Kandahar to retake Tarin Kot," said Amerine, who recalled becoming immediately edgy, particularly because the Afghans wanted to take time to eat before preparing for battle. "They forced me to sit and eat a little bit," said Amerine, recalling a meal of beef stew, bread, almonds, yellow raisins and more green tea. With a small group of Afghans, the 5th Special Forces Group established an observation post outside town as the Taliban convoy approached early in the morning of the 18th. They called in U.S. aircraft, which began attacking the vehicles.
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