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General Plans Changes in Afghan Strategy
In a significant switch in strategy, U.S. troops plan to set up bases to provide reconstruction aid in provinces plagued by Taliban attacks, the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Saturday in his first interview since taking charge. Lt. Gen. David Barno told The Associated Press that the move will make the troubled south and east safer for aid workers and open the way for landmark Afghan elections in mid-2004. He also predicted a sharp reaction from insurgents. They’re ``going to realize that’s the death knell to terrorist organizations in that part of the country,’’ said Barno. ``We’ll be prepared for that.’’
"Want some? Come and git it. We’re ready."
A wave of violence this year has belied U.S. claims to have brought security to Afghanistan, two years after an American-led assault drove the Taliban from power for harboring al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.
We didn’t say the place was secure, we said the Taliban were out of power.
Attacks have forced the United Nations and other aid groups to withdraw from some regions, undermining aid delivery and confidence in the reconstruction efforts of the U.S.-backed government ahead of elections slated for June. The United Nations has even accused the U.S. military of playing into the hands of Taliban agitators in its hunt for terror suspects, with two botched raids that killed 15 Afghan children earlier this month.
The U.N. being masters of everything of course, especially including hindsight.
In a bid to deliver more aid to impoverished civilians, the United States and allies including Britain and New Zealand have set up nine joint civilian-military units charged with creating islands of stability across the country. So far, most of the so-called Provincial Reconstruction Teams are in relatively secure regions. Now, the U.S. military is deploying teams across a broad swath of the country dominated by Pashtuns, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group from which the hardline Islamic Taliban draw their main support.
The Pashtuns thus get a chance to decide on the 21st century or the 7th.
Knowing the Pashtuns, they'll settle for the 7th...
Barno, who took command of the 11,000-strong U.S. force here on Nov. 27, said there will be at least 12 such reconstruction teams by March and more later, including dangerous missions in the capitals of Zabul and Uruzgan provinces that were shunned by aid groups because Taliban militants reportedly roam freely.
That’s about to change.
The military teams will help distribute reconstruction aid bolstered by an extra $1.2 billion recently released by the U.S. Congress. That aid, combined with the opening of the south and east by a string of new military operations, will cause ``a dramatic change in the amount of involvement of the people in that area in support of the central government and the future of Afghanistan,’’ Barno said. Aid groups worry that their attempts to remain independent in the eyes of Afghans, including Taliban sympathizers, has been compromised by U.S. involvement in delivering assistance.
A little bit more "give them what they want, maybe they'll leave us alone" from the usual suspects...
But Barno suggested it was time for relief groups to accept that they could not be neutral after a stream of deliberate attacks on de-miners and well-diggers. He said he hoped aid workers would return to Pashtun areas. ``They probably have to, and they are, realizing that they are now operating in a different world,’’ he said.
Think that message will get through the thick skulls of European U.N. staffers? I didn’t either.
Posted by: Steve White 2003-12-21
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=23107