[R-G] Canadians enlisted in new American-style Afghan war

[Anthony Fenton]

Canadians enlisted in new American-style Afghan war
Iain Hunter
Special to Times Colonist
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=c07cf356-a07f-49ba-a29e-27e9ba8ef83f&sponsor=

Bush has come to shove in southern Afghanistan. The U.S. commander-in- 
chief has sent in the marines.

It's reported that this has made NATO forces operating there uneasy.

It's not that the Canadians and British and the rest of them don't  
appreciate the extra manpower the 3,500 U.S. marines will provide, or  
the extra aircraft and light armoured vehicles they've brought.

But the other NATO forces have been told they have to learn to operate  
in what's called "the American way" alongside the marines, and they're  
not quite sure how this is going to make the job of winning hearts and  
minds any easier when the Americans have left in seven months when  
their "mini-surge" is over.

It's pretty clear that the NATO-U.S. operation in Afghanistan isn't  
going well in some areas of the country, especially in the south where  
Canadian and British troops operate. There are, it's reported, remote  
areas where the NATO troops haven't yet been where pockets of  
insurgents lurk. There are tracks used to move wounded fighters and  
opium south to the Pakistan border and arms and money move north.

The Daily Telegraph reports that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown  
has warned his allies that NATO is "critically short" of troops in  
Afghanistan and might not be able to hold whatever gains are made by  
November, when the marines are scheduled to pull out.

The alliance, after all, has other responsibilities besides the war in  
Afghanistan that it was drawn into by the Americans -- such as Kosovo  
where Britain is sending a reserve battalion.

And Canada has issued its own ultimatum, which is going to put even  
more pressure after 2011 on other countries without as strong a will  
to fight.

The United Nations envoy, Kai Eide, has just warned that everything  
won in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was overthrown seven years  
ago is in danger of being lost because of the fragmented international  
approach to securing and rebuilding the country and the weakness of  
the government of President Hamid Karzai.

The president himself had to be hustled away from the scene of an  
attack by insurgents near his palace in Kabul on Sunday while all  
those Afghan soldiers ran for cover.

And in the eastern part of the country yesterday, 19 members of a  
poppy-eradication team under NATO guard were killed in an attack.

Gen. Dan McNeill is the U.S. army officer who commands NATO troops in  
Afghanistan, and it's he who says things must be done there, now, the  
American way.

Specifically, he wants the Canadians and other forces to deploy their  
soldiers for longer periods, make more effort to eradicate the  
cultivation of opium poppies and get more involved in reconstruction  
and humanitarian work.

The marines are under McNeill's direct command and seem to have the  
same gung-ho approach that they exhibited in Iraq, where many of them  
served. McNeill himself has said they're in the southern part of the  
country to "stir things up."

In March last year, about 100 marines, it was reported, were sent  
packing for responding to an ambush using "Iraq rules" that violated  
the less violent rules of engagement that were supposed to be in place  
in Afghanistan.

It looks as if the Afghan war, at least for the next seven months, is  
to be played by Iraq rules, which don't seem to have endeared a lot of  
people in that country to the American invaders.

Restoring security and rebuilding a country is a long, slow process.  
First, a region has to be cleared of insurgent fighters, then it has  
to be held to provide the security under which the third stage,  
rebuilding, can take place.

The marines might be in Afghanistan long enough to rout the insurgents  
where they are concentrated.

They might even be able to stop or reduce the traffic in fighters,  
arms, opium and money.

But when they have gone, someone else is going to have to hold what  
they've gained and someone else is going to carry on with the  
rebuilding.

When the marine mini-surge was announced in January, a Pentagon  
spokesman said it was to be "a one-time deal -- that's it."

Maybe we should hope it's not. Maybe we should hope that the Americans  
will be persuaded -- if only because their allies aren't up to the job  
-- to stay long enough to finish what, after all, they started.

cruachan at shaw.ca
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2008