Outlaw Platoon: Heroes, Renegades, Infidels, and the Brotherhood of War in Afghanistan

by Sean Parnell

Waites was a leadership challenge. He was never quite in sync with the other leaders in the platoon,

I knew I could trust them to be consummate professionals.

Our biggest concern was the Afghan Border Police. How loyal were they?

“Lieutenant Parnell, this is Major Alam Ghul. He is the commander of the border police here. The major would like to meet with you.” Part

of

my job as a platoon leader included working with loca...

Here on the border, the people spoke a diverse array of languages, including Pashtun, Dari, and Wazari. Abdul spoke them all, plus a little Arabic, which made

him

inval...

Wheat was a lanky character, skinny and unassuming. But he was a rock in a crisis. I never saw him lose his cool, and he had a thoughtful way about him.

TWO

PRISONER

OF

THE

D...

We were descending into the mesa itself.

he led us into a narrow chamber dominated by a small fire pit in its center.

Both had shiny AK-47s in their laps, hands on their pistol and fore grips as if ready to spring into action.

“Why too risky?” I asked.

“Sir, he says he has received night letters for many weeks now.”

Night letters. Death threats from the local enemy forces.

They carried themselves with more pride and possessed an air of professionalism I hadn’t seen here.

“He says these two men are his bodyguards. He keeps them with him at all times since he began receiving the night letters.”

Don’t trust Ghul, and be careful what you give him. But remember, he’s the power broker around Gamal. Maybe even more than the mayor. We need him on our side.”

Major Ghul went on to tell us of Taliban ambushes on his checkpoints in the valley. Other times, they launched hit-and-run raids on his men stationed at Gamal.

Several times, he had his own men shoot up his trucks and checkpoints to get better equipment from us.”

“We suspected that Major Ghul sold the new weapons on the black market.” “Why?” I asked. “To make money for himself,” Abdul replied. “Where do weapons sold on the black market end up?”

“All

o...

With

the

e...

How

do

work with such a man, let alone figh...

The other ’terps rarely left the wire without covering their faces.

usually resulted in the nocturnal murder of the ’terps’ families.

Major

Ghul might not have been on the enemy’s side, but he sure wasn’t on ours either. Perhaps he was on his own, operating from pure self-interest. The war, for him, was the Afghan version of a get-rich-quick scheme.

Once again, he told Abdul that without more guns and ammo, Bandar stood no chance against an enemy assault.

He had intelligence that the Taliban was planning to hit his base again.

He wanted guns. Badly. And my refusal to promise him any taxed his acting abilities. He made an attempt to mask his frustration with fake smiles.

I tried to imagine how his men must have felt, knowing that their commander had sold all their best equipment, leaving them to face the enemy with castoff weapons.

I sensed an undercurrent of hostility blooming between us.

Brown

He was sensitive and emotional, and I had also found him to be very conscientious. I relied on him a lot.

The infantryman’s way of life has a knack for distilling a man’s character down to its most essential

elements.

He’d drawn a fierce and