An Afghan air force MD 530F Cayuse Warrior helicopter flies over Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 6, 2014. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Perry Aston

In A Strategic Valley, A Glimpse Of Afghan Troops’ Future After Most U.S. Forces Leave -- Washington Post

BABA, Afghanistan — Clutching M-16 rifles, the Afghan soldiers nervously stood watch on a sand-colored ridge next to a mud house blown apart by gunfire. A week earlier, their unit had pushed the Taliban from this village. Now, the insurgents were only a mile away, determined to recapture the territory.

Every day, the 15 soldiers have felt the pressure — and their own limitations.

“They are opening fire on us during the night, even just last night,” said Sgt. Mohammad Mirwais. “We are not enough to protect the village from the Taliban.”

Since March, Mirwais’s Afghan army battalion has been steadily confronting the Taliban in the Chak Valley, southwest of the capital, Kabul. Their performance has been a rare sliver of success in an unprecedented year of death and anguish for the country’s security forces.

But even here, pushing back the insurgents is a grinding and treacherous task. The unit’s experience is a portent of how Afghanistan’s 13-year-old war could shape up in the months after the formal end of the U.S.-led combat mission. Beginning next year, Afghan forces will assume full sovereignty over security with the help of a much smaller — and restricted — NATO presence.

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My Comment: I sense nothing but never-ending war for Afghanistan .... but it is they who must fight and decide what future they want.