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 If Washington sticks to its schedule for withdrawing troops, by
the time his tour ends in November, the NATO training mission in
Afghanistan will be nearing its end, despite local forces struggling
to fight the Taliban insurgency alone.
"There is still much work to do," said Chung, a veteran of several
Afghan tours, speaking at Sorab base, a dusty expanse of blast walls
and wire fences in Helmand.
"You have to adjust your expectations," he told Reuters during a
recent visit to the base in the southern province, where Taliban
militants, bent on overthrowing the government and driving out
foreign forces, made major gains in recent months.
Corruption and issues like irregular leave due to heavy fighting and
pay have undermined efficiency and hurt morale among local troops.
He has seen progress since arriving in February but remains
realistic: "We understand we're not going to be able to fix all
that."
 As things stand, U.S. forces in Afghanistan are due to be nearly
halved to 5,500 from the current level of 9,800 by the start of
2017. At that level, U.S. officials say the training mission would
not be able to continue.
But the timetable is coming under scrutiny, as the new U.S.
commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan conducts a review of
security before making recommendations to Washington some time in
June.
General John Nicholson recently told Reuters that heavy fighting and
casualties in 2015 had meant the training mission was behind
schedule.
NATO commanders say big strides have been made by fledgling Afghan
security forces, built virtually from scratch since the Taliban was
toppled from power in 2001.
But the sharp escalation in casualties and territorial losses in
2015, the first year Afghan forces fought without combat support
from NATO, has underlined the risks involved in having only 5,500
U.S. soldiers in the country.
Afghan officials say forces lack vital resources including close air
support, which the small local air force cannot yet provide at
anything like the levels NATO could, as well as expertise in areas
like maintenance and logistics.
"Those capabilities are still under development and there is a lot
more work needed," Acting Defence Minister Masoom Stanekzai said on
a recent visit to the Afghan 215th Corps headquarters at Sorab. "We
need international assistance."
FROM DEFENSE TO OFFENsE
One of the biggest challenges Chung said he faced was trying to
change the mindset of Afghan soldiers, as NATO pushes them to be
more offensive in operations against the Taliban.
"They'd go out to a certain area, and the first thing they'd do is
... build a checkpoint. From that point on, they'd become very
stationary," he said, describing how local forces tended to operate.
Chung and his team are among around 500 U.S. troops dispatched to
bolster 215th Corps, a reflection of international alarm at how
Helmand security had deteriorated early in 2016.
The training, mainly by Afghan officers backed up by U.S. mentors,
covers everything from battle tactics to driving, vehicle
maintenance, equipment care and bomb disposal.
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"At some point, there's going to be an end-date on this," Chung
said. "We're here to help them build something that they can sustain
and manage."
But U.S. officials acknowledge that the task has been complicated by
problems including corruption among some officers that undermined
confidence and morale.
"If you don't know someone higher up in the army, all your benefits
go to soldiers who know army officials," said Darweza Khan, a 215th
Corps soldier serving in Gereshk district.
A spokesman for the "Resolute Support" training mission said earlier
this year that several senior officers in the 215th Corps had been
replaced for graft that led to soldiers not being adequately looked
after and supplies and equipment being stolen.
"MORE TIME WOULD BE GREAT"
Nicholson has declined to comment on troop levels as he prepares his
review, but U.S. military spokesman Brigadier General Charles
Cleveland said asking for more flexibility, including in use of air
power, was among options he was considering.
That would be welcome by the government, which has struggled to
contain the insurgency since NATO formally ended combat operations
at the end of 2014, leaving only a fraction of an international
force that peaked at more than 130,000.
Whether there is appetite for more delays in reducing U.S. forces
remains to be seen, particularly in election year.
If the current plan remains, U.S. focus will switch to
counterterrorism operations against Islamic State, al Qaeda and
other groups, with little capacity for training and advising.
Foreign officers involved in the program remain realistic, given
that time is running short.
"This is not an overnight fix," said British Major General Paul
Nanson, commandant of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, which
has worked closely with the Afghan army's officer training school
near Kabul on building a new generation of army leaders.
"This is a generational change. We've now committed to seeing it
through 2016 which is good news. If we haven't got more time, we've
got to do the best we can with the time available."
(Additional reporting by Mohammad Stanekzai in Lashkar Gah; Editing
by Mike Collett-White)
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