Culture, Politics Hinder U.S. Effort to Bolster Pakistani Border Forces

"These guys are Pashtuns, so they know the local areas. But there are problems. There's been this kind of historical stepchild relationship with the army," said a Western diplomat, who like many officials interviewed spoke on condition of anonymity because of the politically sensitive nature of the training program. "They've got different levels of equipment, different levels of medevac services than the army. One of the concerns we've heard about is: 'What happens if we get killed? What happens to our families?' "

Low wages, bribery, nepotism and poor equipment are just a few of the complaints among rank-and-file troops. Sadiq Ali, a former member of the corps, said he served two years before deciding to desert. He had spent most of his time on the front lines, in the troubled tribal area of North Waziristan, which has become a refuge for al-Qaeda and its pro-Taliban supporters.

"I personally fought against Taliban on several occasions in different places near the Afghan border, and some of them were really fierce. The Taliban are skillful fighters," Ali said.

Ali said he joined the Frontier Corps to help his family financially. But the meager wages were hardly enough to keep him in. He said his family pressured him to leave his post after the Frontier Corps suffered several widely publicized and bloody defeats in North Waziristan. "My family was very much concerned about my life when they would read news about all the bloody clashes in Waziristan," Ali said. "No parents would risk their children's lives just for a few thousand rupees a month."

Frontier Corps soldiers average $60 to $70 a month, or a little more than half what their counterparts in the regular Pakistani army make and a third less than Afghan army troops do. Part of the U.S. military aid will go toward improving the paramilitary force's salaries, Khattak said.

But money might not be much of a motivator for troops who have grown up in a region where religious conservatism is deeply entrenched. Besides sharing a common ethnic bond with the militants, many of the Frontier Corps troops attended the religious schools, or madrassas, run by the Taliban members that they now find themselves fighting.

Zeeshan, a 21-year-old Frontier Corps deserter who gave only his first name for fear of reprisals, said he left his unit in December after witnessing dozens of bloody skirmishes during his two-year tour in North and South Waziristan. He left his post after getting leave to attend a cousin's wedding in North-West Frontier Province, and decided never to pick up arms again for the Pakistani military.

"I didn't know why we were fighting this war," he said. "It was all about following the orders of my senior officers, and that's it."