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Hearts beating out of their chests, ready for battle, 20 men pass through military checkpoints in rickety pickup trucks, unarmed and in local

dress. At some point along the cold, pitch-black desert road, their grubby hands unearth US uniforms, AK47s and RPGs that were buried and waiting for them. As the clock strikes 10pm, a boom echoes around the most heavily fortified city in the world. A suicide bomber has breached the fence of Camp Bastion, Helmand Province, creating the chance for his 19 comrades to pour into the base and wreak havoc.

Two US Marines were killed during the 14 September attacks, and nine others were wounded. Varying reports say the fire-fight lasted between two and four hours, and saw 50 airmen from the RAF Regiment Force Protection Wing take on the jihadis ready to sacrifice their lives. Four of the airman were among the wounded. The Taliban caused more than £120million-worth of damage, destroying six Harrier fighter jets during the vengeance assault for an anti-Islam video posted on YouTube, made all the more news-worthy because Prince Harry had arrived in town two days before.

Only one of the jihadis survived for questioning, but as the attackers were wearing American army uniforms, it left little doubt they had inside help. Just hours later, British troops died, with 18-year-old Private Thomas Wroe and 29-year-old Sergeant Gareth Thursby, both of the third Battalion The

Yorkshire Regiment, shot dead by a man in an Afghan police uniform in a so-called ‘Green On Blue’ attack.

With pressure piling on Western governments to remove their troops from the region, NATO soldiers are spending more and more time training ordinary Afghans to become members of the Afghan National Army and police force – with the hope they can run the country from the middle of next year. But this close proximity and insider knowledge of the British and American military has supposedly provided wily insurgents with new opportunity.

It was a weekend when anyone could be forgiven for wondering if it’s safe to trust our Afghan military partners – it was a rare occasion when the public didn’t mind political bandwagon jumping by MPs. Many agreed. A few years ago, after being locked in war for half a decade, military strategy in Afghanistan changed. In 2001 we liberated Kabul, patted ourselves on the back after a few big battles, and rested on laurels until the “oh-shit moment” we entered Helmand Province in 2006.

We’ve now lost more soldiers in the arid badlands of Southern Afghanistan than any other theatre of war since World War Two. And the weapon of choice for militiamen all over the country is the IED – Improvised Explosive Device – which looks like a child’s science project but has claimed 75 per cent of the 433 British lives lost. Politicians want out and the quickest way to do it is to train the Afghans to provide their own security, a task far easier said than done.

Many see the change of tact as being dangerous, but one who really doesn’t agree is Captain Patrick Hennessey, the man who literally wrote the book on serving shoulder-to-shoulder with Afghan comrades, and lost a good friend in one such Green On Blue attack three years ago. “It’s devastating when one of these incidents happens,” admitted the former Grenadier Guards officer. “But it’s

With a number of NATO troops being killed by their fellow soldiers in the Afghan

army, are they still the country’s future?blood brothers Words Paul McNamara

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war reportso important we don’t let these few attacks tarnish everything else that has happened out there. The only viable way that the Afghan security forces are going to get to the point where they are able to do the job on their own is through partnering. So cutting back on joint patrols would have a significant impact on how the rest of the war – and the entire future for Afghanistan – plays out.”

In 2007, Captain Hennessey’s Battalion was one of the first to be charged with not only training Afghan fighters, but fighting alongside them too. Based in one of the ‘punchiest’ regions of Helmand, Gereshk for six months, he formed an opinion of Afghan warriors that will take a lot to change. “That tour was full of the most ridiculous, and hilarious sights I’ll ever see in my life,” says Hennessey. “It was also one of the bravest – and a lot of what I saw was done by the Afghans – proud guys willing to fight and die to bring security to their homeland.”

kandakShocking incidents, like those that claimed the lives of Pte Wroe and Sgt Thursby, are inevitable for an Army of uneducated, barely literate soldiers that has gone from 20,000 troops in 2005 to 200,000 in 2012, according to Hennessey. But in one hour of talking to loaded, using military history, experience, and plain-speaking common sense, he made a better case for continuing partnered patrols than weeks of political whinge-bagging by MPs who have never seen war made for the contrary. “The first thing you have to realise is that when there is some horrific Green On Blue attack, it usually has absolutely nothing to do with the Taliban.

“Everyone talks about it as if it’s that Leonardo DiCaprio film The Departed, and you’ve got some Taliban sleeper that’s infiltrated the British Army laying low. But the issue is a lot more complex than a two-dimensional Taliban strategy – which can mean that it’s even more difficult to counteract.”

In Hennessey’s most recent book, Kandak, he details the intricacies of dealing with Afghans, a fierce and proud people who can be quick to fight and easy to offend if you don’t know their customs. The introduction to the book sets the tone perfectly, as Hennessey describes a winter night in a Forward Operating Base in Nad-e Ali, of what he – and the entire British Army - thought was the calm before the storm. “All the intel said something was soon to kick off. It was eerie how silent the town was, a sure sign that gunfire and RPGs would soon be breaking it.” But there was absolutely nothing. The only thing out-of-the-ordinary was a strange ring around the moon caused by light diffusing through the clouds. “Like a night rainbow,” described Hennessey.

After hours wound up like a coil, the captain went looking for his Afghan counterparts – all keeping themselves to themselves, giggling like schoolgirls in their tents. “It turned out that an old wives’ tale says that if you walk outside while the night rainbow is out, men turn into women! No wonder nothing was kicking off – all the Talibs were hiding under rocks terrified

of losing their manhood. And while the Afghan soldiers were keen to tell me it was only ignorant insurgents that believed these tales, I didn’t see one of them step out into the night.”

The young captain’s first experience of fighting alongside Afghans was on Operation Silicon in 2007 – a mission deep into the luscious Green Zone. After days worrying about whether his Afghan counterparts would turn up prepared for war, he was pleasantly surprised. He writes: “We’d spent the night fretting that we didn’t have enough vehicles, didn’t have enough troops, didn’t have enough firepower – we hadn’t been worried about how we’d control the Mad Max Army we found waiting for us, nearly 400 warriors in scores of vehicles hooting with impatience on the square. It was the first time we had actually seen the whole kandak as an entity, a fighting unit, and it was more impressive than the sum of its dodgy parts.”

Within hours of the operation, a Taliban ambush was the perfect opportunity to prove themselves. “[They] showed their true colours: the weight of RPG and PKM fire which the

ANA had poured back at the enemy the moment the ambush started and bought us enough time to get up on to that dam [and cover] in the first place hadn’t come from nowhere. A couple of hundred warriors who had never paid the slightest bit of attention when we’d tried to train them had broken the ambush immaculately.”

difficult timesLater that same day, Hennessey describes an old Afghan soldier being insulted by a cowering Afghan policeman who says he would fight if he had the shiny new gun and helmet of the soldier. So the soldier strips naked, throws his gun down, picks up a wrench and chases out to do battle with the Taliban with his bare hands. It illustrates perfectly how easy it is to offend someone during the fog of war. And this is the crux of what Hennessey believes causes Afghans to turn their arms on their British and allied comrades.

“What I think is much more usual is that these soldiers don’t have any form of political, religious, or ideological motive, and no coherent plan. They are under stress, experience tensions, something fractures – like a public telling-off from a mentor or seeing something on patrol that makes them snap – and then they fire a gun.”

Hennessey is speaking from experience. In November 2009, five British soldiers were shot dead by a rogue Afghan policeman in what would be one of the Army’s blackest days in recent history. One of the men was veteran soldier Regimental Sergeant Major Darren Chant – he had been Captain Hennessey’s Company Sergeant Major, and a good friend. “It was fantastically difficult, and makes you

question what you’re doing. But that incident was exactly what I’m talking about. It was a guy already in trouble, who wasn’t a very good policeman, the other Afghans had a problem with him, he had a problem with discipline, and he flipped. He sprayed automatic rounds all over the place, killed five Brits and a whole load of Afghans too.”

Early reports suggested it was a Taliban-planned attack, after their spokesman claimed credit for it. “Well of course they would,” says Hennessey. It wasn’t the Taliban at all. But the first thing you’re going to do if you’re that guy is do a runner – and the one group that will take

you in are the Taliban. So you don’t come away thinking this undermines everything you do – you just think, ‘What a fucking waste’. You come away asking, ‘How do we make sure this doesn’t happen again?’” Despite what politicians are calling for, many military strategists disagree that ending joint patrols is the answer. In fact, many believe that it’s the politicians’ Afghan counterparts, not the soldiers, that hold the answers. “Two things need to change,” according to Hennessey. “Firstly, the Afghan Ministry Of Defence has to rethink how they deploy troops.”

At present, while ‘our boys’ serve six months on the frontlines, Afghans are there indefinitely with one rest and recuperation period each year. “It’s no secret that guys are coming back from Afghanistan with post-traumatic

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stress disorder; and that’s after six months. The Afghans are serving too long on the frontlines.” Secondly, Hennessey believes that there should be more cultural sensitivity training – for the Afghans. “We receive lots of training on how not to offend the locals. But how much do they receive? The Afghan MoD has to let their guys know that if you come back from leave and a Brit asks you how your wife and kids are, he’s not being rude. Tiny things like that after five years on the frontline make a huge difference – and could save lives.”

comraderyThe troops themselves are making the effort. Any regular visitor to Afghanistan will tell you that the difference between the ANA of 2006 and 2012 is unbelievable – it’s the difference between herding cats, and a recognisably organised military machine. “I’ll give you an example of how hard they’re trying to get along with the Brits,” says Hennessey. “One evening, after a particularly hard day, I was told about one of the Afghan firing a grenade into the river nearby. I went to ask him about it – and he smiled as soon as he saw me. First, he explained it was the easiest way to catch fish. Secondly, he told me how he managed to get some paprika from a US ration pack for the

fish. Then he told me he managed to find some potatoes in town. And lastly, he presented me with a plate, grinning from ear to ear, and said in pigeon English, ‘YOU… BRITISH… FISH AND CHIP!’ It was a thank you for all the training he and his Tolay [Afghan Company], had received. “So you see”, adds Hennessey, “it’ll take more than the odd rogue, PTSD-ridden soldier to make me think less of an entire army.” n loaded

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“one afghan gave me a plate and, grinning from ear to ear said, ‘YoU… brItIsH… FIsH AND CHIP!’” Field work

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