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Article snippet: CAMP MOREHEAD, Afghanistan — In an hourlong ceremony in a valley a few miles southeast of Kabul on Sunday, more than 300 members of the Afghan National Army Special Operations Command stood at attention at Camp Morehead, a training base, as a succession of officials, American and Afghan, told them how successful they had been at fighting the Taliban. And with the total number of special operation forces soon to reach 30,000, a full corps, their enemies would flee in the face of them, the commandos were assured. President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, in strident tones at odds with his usual mild demeanor, told the gathered troops that they had saved the sovereignty of the country when the Taliban threatened. “The Taliban have never won against the commandos and the Ktah Khas,” added Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., the commander of the Afghanistan war effort, referring to a unit of the Afghan special operations forces. “They never will.” But all the confidence and congratulations disguised a larger truth at the heart of why the Taliban have managed to take back so much territory in Afghanistan. The country’s current number of 21,000 special operations troops, while set to grow soon, account for only 7 percent of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. But they do from 70 percent to 80 percent of the actual fighting. The bulk of the Afghan military and police forces are still well below the readiness and ability levels that American and NATO war planners hoped ... Link to the full article to read more