Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Times
April 30, 2007
Pg. 12
Support may swing to Taliban without continuous security, aid
By Denis D. Gray, Associated Press
KHAKAR, Afghanistan -- There isn't a single foreign-aid worker helping this village of illiterate have-nots. Visits by U.S. troops to dole out medicine, cooking oil and teddy bears are rare events. And when they leave, the Taliban move in from the mountains to undo their work.
Khakar is what the Americans call a "swing village." Given sustained security and assistance, it might well side with the government; but without that help, it goes the way of the insurgents.
"This is commonplace. They're kind of sitting on the fence to see how things go," said Lt. Col. Karl Slaughenhaupt, a senior U.S. adviser to the Afghan army. "They are willing to support the government, but at this point in time, we simply don't have enough contact with the people to push the anti-government elements out."
Col. Slaughenhaupt's assessment addresses one of the core problems of the conflict. Five years after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban regime, the government and outside world have provided neither enough bread nor guns to undercut the resurgent militants.
Zabul, a backwater province in southeastern Afghanistan, offers a dramatic example.
"The economy is the key solution. If it is good, there will be no Taliban. But now, I cannot even support my brothers in Zabul with a piece of bread," said provincial Gov. Dalbar Ayman, picking up a slice of local flat bread from his plate.
By U.N. standards, up to 80 percent of the province's 300,000 people, mostly subsistence farmers and pastoralists, are short of food. There are only two midwives and no obstetricians. Most of the 11 districts have no medical facilities at all.
Women aren't much better off in the deeply conservative region than when the Taliban was shuttering them in their homes. Fewer than 10 percent of girls go to school, and only about 5 percent are literate. In 2005 elections, 11 percent of Zabul women voted, compared with the national average of 40 percent.
Aid and reconstruction depend on security, officials say. Otherwise, the classic formula for a successful counterinsurgency -- one part military muscle to four parts political, economic and propaganda operations -- can't be applied.
"The people are not confident that we can protect them," Mr. Ayman said. He wants 30 percent to 40 percent more troops. "Hopefully, we won't go backward if we don't get them, but we certainly won't move forward."
Haji Fezal, a farmer and transport business owner, agrees.
April 30, 2007
Pg. 12
Support may swing to Taliban without continuous security, aid
By Denis D. Gray, Associated Press
KHAKAR, Afghanistan -- There isn't a single foreign-aid worker helping this village of illiterate have-nots. Visits by U.S. troops to dole out medicine, cooking oil and teddy bears are rare events. And when they leave, the Taliban move in from the mountains to undo their work.
Khakar is what the Americans call a "swing village." Given sustained security and assistance, it might well side with the government; but without that help, it goes the way of the insurgents.
"This is commonplace. They're kind of sitting on the fence to see how things go," said Lt. Col. Karl Slaughenhaupt, a senior U.S. adviser to the Afghan army. "They are willing to support the government, but at this point in time, we simply don't have enough contact with the people to push the anti-government elements out."
Col. Slaughenhaupt's assessment addresses one of the core problems of the conflict. Five years after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban regime, the government and outside world have provided neither enough bread nor guns to undercut the resurgent militants.
Zabul, a backwater province in southeastern Afghanistan, offers a dramatic example.
"The economy is the key solution. If it is good, there will be no Taliban. But now, I cannot even support my brothers in Zabul with a piece of bread," said provincial Gov. Dalbar Ayman, picking up a slice of local flat bread from his plate.
By U.N. standards, up to 80 percent of the province's 300,000 people, mostly subsistence farmers and pastoralists, are short of food. There are only two midwives and no obstetricians. Most of the 11 districts have no medical facilities at all.
Women aren't much better off in the deeply conservative region than when the Taliban was shuttering them in their homes. Fewer than 10 percent of girls go to school, and only about 5 percent are literate. In 2005 elections, 11 percent of Zabul women voted, compared with the national average of 40 percent.
Aid and reconstruction depend on security, officials say. Otherwise, the classic formula for a successful counterinsurgency -- one part military muscle to four parts political, economic and propaganda operations -- can't be applied.
"The people are not confident that we can protect them," Mr. Ayman said. He wants 30 percent to 40 percent more troops. "Hopefully, we won't go backward if we don't get them, but we certainly won't move forward."
Haji Fezal, a farmer and transport business owner, agrees.