"Canadian and coalition forces cut the ribbon on a base deep in Taliban country today to show rural elders their support for the Afghan government.

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Martello is to act like a 21st-century version of a castle keep.

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Dejavu. If it has artillery it will be like a 21st century version of a fire base. If only infantry, then a patrol base. Either way, 200 miles from supporting elements it will be no fun, particularly in a hostile region. Depending on the weather the troops will be debating what is worse, mud or dust.

The Americans have lost the support of the people; they have reacted with too much of a heavy hand over the last few years.

I think the site is ok. I had the same security notice.

I am not a spook by the way.

[ 10 June 2006: Message edited by: Webgear ]

From your link:

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Most of the elders sat impassively on brightly coloured rugs during the parley, as aides distributed trays of fruit and drinks.

One elder complained bitterly about the behaviour of coalition soldiers in the villages.

"Your soldiers come and they beat us, they disturb us in our houses," said the man in Pashto as Fraser and his staff looked on.

The police commander replied such a thing isn't possible.

In the end, the gesture that seemed to please the elders the most was the distribution of free clock-radios — each with a sheet of paper emblazoned with an Afghan flag, a dove of peace, and two hands grasped in friendship.

Some of the elders crumpled the sheets of paper and tossed them on the ground.

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The Americans have lost the support of the people; they have reacted with too much of a heavy hand over the last few years.

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According to this story, the Canadian military 'supports' the efforts of others at poppy eradication, while not carrying out such eradication itself. Understandably, the farmers whose livelihoods are affected find the distinction hard to understand:

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He said it's a tough distinction for soldiers to finesse on the ground, in the poppy-dependent villages where Canada is trying to win friends and where most Afghans see the soldiers for what they are allies of the national government.

"From the people's point of view, it's hard for them to discern between one group that's doing poppy eradication and another group that's here to support Afghans and deal with the terrorist threat. They don't see the distinction, and it's the job of every soldier on the ground, every day, to make sure he explains it to them."

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The report: The Changing Nature of Insurgency in Southern Afghanistan, calls for an end to opium-eradication campaigns.

The crop represents one-half of the local economy and government aid and substitution crop programs have failed, pushing desperately poor farmers into even deeper poverty, the report said.

Few of the promises made by foreign powers when the Taliban fell have improved the daily lives of the local population.

"Unsuccessful programs have also contributed to reinforcing the perceptions among the local population that the international community and central government have failed to improve lives in rural Helmand."

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I haven't got the latest UNODC report in front of me, but I recall reading there that the international community as a whole was about $100 million short of the target for alternative livelihoods programs for 2005-2006, and that the levels of donations were set to decrease in coming years.

I had a chance to attend an Afghan cultural course this week. A certain point was discussed several times about how the Afghans tell the truth, and according to my instructors and lecturers, Afghans may make statements that are not 100 percent truthful in order to save face with their family, clan and tribe when dealing with NATO troops.

It was quite interesting and very in-depth. The main point was that everything in Afghanistan may not be what it seems and that there are always plots within plots and Afghans look at life in a different way than western cultures do.

The other main point of the week is that six months of hard work can be broken by one mistake in a short moment. Respect and understand Afghan culture and do not make a mistake.

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Originally posted by Webgear:

.... according to my instructors and lecturers, Afghans may make statements that are not 100 percent truthful in order to save face with their family, clan and tribe when dealing with NATO troops.

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OMG!! They're a nation of politicians. Take care.

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I do hope that the mistakes the Americans have made can be correct by Canadain troops.

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Originally posted by Webgear:
I had a chance to attend an Afghan cultural course this week. A certain point was discussed several times about how the Afghans tell the truth, and according to my instructors and lecturers, Afghans may make statements that are not 100 percent truthful in order to save face with their family, clan and tribe when dealing with NATO troops.

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Hmm. That sounds like pretty much everyone else on earth. How many people do you know who have never been less than 100% truthful in an effort to save face, or have people they love not discover something about them that they don't want them to know?

Very short answer, I will supply a longer answer tomorrow.

The problem with poppy eradication is that the farmers the grow poppies are in debt to the drug lords and warlords. The farmers feed their families by the money give to them by the criminal elements at the start of each growing season and if the farmers do not have a crop at the end of the year, the criminals take the farmers property and items of value to pay for the lost crops (I have read reports of daughters being sold in to slavery to pay for the lost crops).

The British are suppose to big on poppy eradication because it is believed that all of the heroin found on British street comes from Afghanistan (War on Drugs) and they want to end that problem.

The answer to poppy eradication is reconstruction of the irrigation system that runs through the country. If there is water, farmers could grow crops that could be bought from western governments at the price the criminals pay for poppy crops. Hence the poppy problem could be solved.

However there can not be any reconstruction done until you have a secure environment and you can not have a secure environment until there is some reconstruction.

It is a vicious circle of events, a great catch-22.

Part of the lectures discussed the reasons why for these actions. Some of the reasons were because of personal status and family honour. The instructors said that if you ask an Afghan for a favour they could not do or could not do well, they would answer that they could do you favour just to save face and their family’s honour.

Hmmm it is hard to discuss 60 hours of lectures into a few paragraphs.

A very interesting portion of the lectures included daily prayers, and the devotion to their religion. We spent each morning going over how prayers were done and what is actually
spoken during the prayers. We even recited these prayers.

I am to gain every piece of information I can get. I do not care to make mistakes like other poeple have done in Afghanistan.

[ 10 June 2006: Message edited by: Webgear ]

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Webgear:

Forward Operating Base Martello and others bases like these are the only way to get out in the country side.

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But the question remains, is getting out into the country side worth the cost in the long run?

I've done some time in FOBs, they still isolate troops from the locals and provide targets for the guerillas. Actually moving into villages in squad and platoon sized units and living and working with the villagers might have a more positive impact, but in Afghanistan the cultural differences may be too great for this kind of interaction.

The problem with situations like the occupation of Afghanistan is that tactical successes do not add up to victory and sooner or later the cost in lives and resources to continue these successes far exceeds the value of winning and the effort is abandoned.

This of course is not easy to see when one is focused on how to make it work rather than on whether or not it has a reasonable chance of working at all.

An interesting article in today's New York Times:

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"The situation is really, in the last four years, the most unstable and insecure I have seen," said Talatbek Masadykov, who is in charge of the United Nations assistance mission in Kandahar....

One international security official in Kandahar, who has several years of experience in Afghanistan and asked not to be named because of the nature of his information, said members of American and Canadian Special Forces units had told him that they were "not winning against the Taliban."....

For several years, they could only field a few hundred men in scattered groups in mountainous areas. Now the Taliban claims to have 12,000 fighters, while coalition estimates add up to perhaps half of that.

Even though several hundred insurgents may have been killed in fighting this year, the Taliban are recruiting ever greater numbers of local people, the officials said....

A former mujahadeen commander and landowner in Panjwai, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from the Taliban, said, "We told the government for months that the situation was bad, that the Taliban were coming and killing people and that it would get difficult if they became too numerous."

He and many other villagers abandoned their farms and brought their families to Kandahar. "The Taliban could get into the city, if the government is still sleeping," he said. He added that he had seen members of the Taliban walking around in Kandahar. "I don't think the government can turn it around now," he said.

The Canadian commander of forces in southern Afghanistan, Brig. Gen. David Fraser, is firmly optimistic. "The Taliban have this great ability to blend into the villages and towns," he said in an interview at his headquarters at the Kandahar air base. "But they are not the superstars people make them out to be. They are capable fighters but defeatable."

Yet Afghans reported that security had become so bad that people said they did not care which side won, as long as someone took control and ended the fighting....

Even more evident is the growing public dissatisfaction with the government, especially with the rampant corruption and venality of local officials, which has played into the hands of the Taliban, who are remembered for running a relatively corruption-free government.

Some people have turned to the Taliban to settle local disputes, in particular in parts of Helmand where they dominate, said the director of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in Kandahar, Abdul Qadar Noorzai....

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Originally posted by sgm:
According to this web page, Canada's planned contribution to alternative livelihoods for farmers around Kandahar works out to just under $4 million/year over 5 years, but it seems to me there's a real question as to whether this is anything like enough or, indeed, if Canada's plans will succeed where others' plans have failed....

...To me, these figures do not bode well for the Afghan farmers, those charged with the eradication programmes, nor for Canadian soldiers there to provide general support for such programmes.

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From this excellent reviewposted in thisthread

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In Afghanistan, the drug trade has undermined everything from security to development, while increasing public frustration with the government. Afghanistan produces 87 percent of the world's heroin according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), based in Vienna. UNODC estimates that the value of all opiates produced in Afghanistan last year was $2.8 billion—out of which only $600 million reached the farmers. That is much less than the average estimated $2.5 billion per year that Western donors have provided Afghanistan since 2001. The aid programs supposed to provide alternative livelihoods to farmers producing poppies or help them grow other lucrative cash crops are derisory when compared to what the drug smugglers offer. The best-functioning programs to help farmers are run by opium traffickers who provide improved varieties of poppy seeds, fertilizer, and better methods of cultivation to increase opium yields and even large-scale employment during the poppy harvest. When we compare Afghanistan's situation today with that of 2001, we see the country now needs to develop an entire alternative economy to replace the drug economy.[/UNQUOTE]

The military expenditure in Afghanistan:

[QUOTE]Meanwhile, the US and NATO are spending between $15 billion and $18 billion a year on their military operations

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The Nyala is utilised in situations where the GWagon's add-on armour is considered insufficient.According to a recent CF statement,the GWagon is considered insufficiently armoured for any duties outside the gates of the Kandahar base.

There is also controversy brewing over CDS Hillier's insistence on acquiring Boeing C-17 Globemaster strategic lift capability. General Hillier is shilling for his American pals.

CASR,from SFU,has a very detailed comparison of the C-17,the Antonov 124 and the new Airbus entry.

According to CASR,the purchase of the C-17 is a hugely expensive acquisition of a Cadillac when the much cheaper Antonov 124 workhorse will suffice or the new Airbus will provide capacity well into the future.

The problem,to me,is not the acquisition of needed capacity but the single-sourcing of assets,through Canadian defense contractors who then source purchases off-the-shelf and stiff the taxpayer for their markup.

The Canadian version of the military-industrial complex has a lock on the gravy train of military procurement.

I believe that the people of Afghanistan need our help.Help to rebuild their country and civil infrastructure.Using the Afghanistan mission as a pretext for military empire-building does nothing to furthur this goal.

ETA: A new NP article states that CDS Hillier is said to favour new Hercules C130J transport.

The C130 is a tactical tansport as opposed to a strategic transport and the CF will definitely have to replace the C-130. The issue is whether a strategic capacity is added.

Jet powered strategic lifters such as the C-17 and A-124 are not capable of tactical airlift on unimproved airstrips.

The new turbo-prop Airbus is capable of both.The HerculesC-130J is also but has a much smaller payload capacity.

[ 11 June 2006: Message edited by: jester ]

"Eight mobile heroin factories and two tonnes of morphine were seized, Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force said."

Looking at culture, we need to remember that it can be hard to generalize about a whole population. There are exceptions to every rule, and Canadians are no different. It would be like trying to encapsulate Canadian culture in a one-day seminar. You could hit the highlights, but there will always be exceptions. Our instructor brought out the differences between village life and city life as an example of the complexities and inconsistencies. I've been here twice and learn little new things all the time.

We have had an element living in a village since we got here, and that was started by the Americans. The Americans do go out into the remote areas.

Cheers,

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A secret weapon against Afghan insurgency
Religious language helps connect to local people, Canadian Forces imam says

GRAEME SMITH

EL BAK, AFGHANISTAN -- A rich voice sang out from a tent, over the bowed heads of elders sitting on carpets and out across the moonscape of rocks, dust and jagged mountains. It was a Muslim prayer, but the kind of prayer never before heard in this part of southern Afghanistan.

"Oh God, help us," Captain Suleyman Demiray said. "Help the Afghan forces and coalition forces root out all kinds of terrorism from this country."

In his Canadian Forces fatigues, Capt. Demiray, 39, looks like any other soldier, except for his white skullcap and the embroidered crescent moon on his chest. As the only military imam in Afghanistan, Capt. Demiray is one of Canada's secret weapons against the insurgency.

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The elders seemed argumentative with the Canadian commander. But when Capt. Demiray stepped into the circle and started reciting verses of the Koran, a hush fell over the tent and the bearded men lifted their hands in supplication.

"I was watching the eyes of the people in that tent," Gen. Fraser said afterward. "They were listening to our imam very carefully."

Among dozens of countries fielding armies in Afghanistan, Canada is the only one to experiment with using an imam to deliver a message of peace. This is an area where Canada brings something new to the battlefield, Gen. Fraser said, because of the country's strong tradition of multiculturalism.

(Globe and Mail)

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