No one understood the tenuous situation better than General Saidkhail himself. “We may not be able to see the enemy,” he told his district commanders over lunch a few weeks before he died, “but they are still here.”

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On a muggy day last April, I accompanied a patrol of American soldiers into a remote area near the Tajikistan border. The Americans had never visited these villages but felt confident that they were safe. Why? Because they were under the control of a militia leader known as Rozeboi.

Rozeboi, a hulking man in his 30s who bore a resemblance to Tom Selleck, commanded a couple of dozen fighters in Imam Sahib. The district is a vital gateway to Central Asia for commerce in food and construction materials — as well as opium and weapons. American officials say many local officials and militia leaders have a hand in the trafficking, Rozeboi included.

The soldiers described an encounter with Rozeboi’s fighters. The Americans had raided a compound where they found antipersonnel mines and drugs. But when they checked with Afghan authorities about the find, they were told that the compound and its “goods” should be left to Rozeboi’s men. Such winks and nods are standard operating practice for a simple reason: The Americans need militias to bolster shaky government forces. Rozeboi’s could be counted on to help American troops in a fight.

The American strategy for handing over security responsibilities to the Afghan government rests on a similar strategy: putting local militias on the government payroll. Such “recruits” are supposed to be vetted. But in the months it will take to complete that process, American commanders are counting on ragtag militias like Rozeboi’s to fight the Taliban.

Many of the militias are controlled by strongmen who traffic in drugs and weapons and pay their soldiers by taxing the locals, as the Taliban do. Indeed, several militias in Kunduz fought alongside the Taliban before switching to the government’s side.

Can the Karzai government provide the food, clothing and salaries needed to keep those militias friendly? “If they do not have income, they will return to their old bosses,” the mayor of Imam Sahib, Sufi Manaan, warned American officers in February. He should know. Some American commanders believe that he has links to a militia that fought against their soldiers last fall.