The special bond that changed U.S.-Afghan relations

In the final stages of a deadly war, an American colonel and an Afghan general from drastically different walks of life built a friendship so strong it united an entire army base of American and Afghan soldiers. 

Stationed at Camp Victory in Afghanistan's Herat province, Gen. Fazl Ahmad Sayar was one of the most senior military officials in Afghanistan. After joining the Afghan army at just age 13, Sayar fought Soviet invaders in 1979 and dedicated his life to bringing the rule of law to Afghanistan. He rose to become a two-star general – one of four regional commanders for the Afghan army who was in charge of the country’s entire western region. He commanded 13,000 soldiers and was known as a fierce fighter and legendary leader.

“Sayar was what I’ll call the linchpin. He was the anchor for the corps. He commanded,” said Ret. Col. Michael Shute of the New Jersey National Guard, who spent an almost 16-month spell as Sayar's U.S. counterpart. “...He wasn’t afraid of anything.”

Each year, a new group of U.S. National Guard arrived at Camp Victory, tasked with training the largely illiterate Afghan brigade. Withdrawing from the longest war in U.S. history hinged on the Afghan army's ability to withstand the Taliban as a united force. 

But as U.S. trainers rotated through, each new unit started from scratch – without the knowledge, experience and relationships that the previous unit spent a year building. Sayar had to constantly adapt to new American and coalition counterparts, balancing changing power dynamics with the mentors while still commanding his soldiers. All that changed in 2006, when Shute arrived at Camp Victory to be Sayar’s counterpart.

Shute didn’t assume a position of authority, but rather acted as a sounding board. “I never crossed a boundary,” Shute said. “He was always the general. If you ever saw me walking with him it was just like a U.S. general; I was always one step behind and to the left.”

Shute said it took almost 30 days to get Sayar to smile. But eventually, overcoming language barriers and cultural differences, the two men discovered kindred spirits and the shared goal of a stable Afghanistan supported by a professional Afghan army. Shute says he would visit Sayer’s quarters – a one-story brick apartment. There, Shute says the two of them would complain about each other’s soldiers, but everything was always fine by the time they walked out the door.

“We just built a level of trust,” said Shute.

As the personal connection between the colonel and general grew, according to Shute, so did their ability to effectively problem solve. They began to see results.

Shute says the stories Sayar shared about his long military career gave him powerful insight into Afghanistan’s past, from the dynamics of tribalism and warlords to the country's long history with the Cold War. Discovering that most of the Afghan soldiers were seasoned fighters used to continuous war and power struggles, Shute focused on training the Afghans to answer to civilian leadership.

Shute thought the U.S. should have spent more time on relationship building with Afghan civilians. He would walk through the local village, meeting vendors and observing the culture. His goal became winning the hearts and minds of local Afghan people and establishing goodwill with the Afghan soldiers.

“We would go up to a small village called Karokh, which was north of Herat,” Shute said about traveling with Sayar. “We would go into a cave and there we talked politics – mostly politics, sometimes religion, things we were not supposed to talk about as Americans with Afghans. But there he would basically bare his soul to me.”

In January 2009, a 50-year-old Russian helicopter, flying low due to bad weather crashed into a mountain killing everyone on board, including General Sayar.

Now retired, working with veterans and living in New Jersey, Shute called the incident an “unacceptable risk.” He questions the policy which would allow a close ally and one of the country's top five commanders to get on a 1970s vintage aircraft, knowing they were poorly maintained. He asked why the coalition didn't transport Sayar itself. Shute’s questions remain unanswered.

At the time of Sayar’s death, the American withdrawal from Afghanistan was occurring at a snail's pace, as the Taliban made gains in large swaths of the country. While the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan was complex from the start, the bond between the colonel and the general set a lasting precedent for wartime cooperation and progress.

“The legacy of me and my soldiers in the West, when he died, it went. It went because he was the key figure controlling that brigade. He had that brigade where it needed to be,” said Shute. “I honestly believe if he had still be alive, you would see a different Afghanistan.”