U.S. handing over weapons to struggling military in Afganistan

BAGRAM, Afghanistan -- U.S. troops are giving confiscated weapons and ammunition to warlords in Afghanistan, a practice that critics say strengthens private militias and undermines attempts to establish a national army.

The national army was envisioned as a key to the stability of the fledgling government of President Hamid Karzai, which is under threat from powerful local warlords and wields little influence outside the capital, Kabul.

"If you have forces that are in contact with the enemy, or subject to being in contact with the enemy, they need to have adequate weapons," Col. Roger King, the spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said.

Every week, U.S. troops combing eastern Afghanistan find huge weapons caches. Militia fighters traveling with U.S. troops get first crack at seized weapons and ammunition, followed by other nearby forces, King said.

King said he did not know how many weapons had been given to the militias and how many to the national army. But critics say arming the warlords at all sets a bad precedent.

"You've got a situation where Karzai is basically the mayor of Kabul during daylight hours. It's not going to change until the government has forces to call its own," said Peter Singer, a research fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution who has written about plans for the Afghan army.