2008 Woodie Awards
New Afghani strategies should be implemented
Jonathan Gair
Issue date: 1/18/08 Section: OpEd Page
Although it seems as if all news of Middle East developments focus around the situation in Iraq, the Afghanistan campaign is still proving to be extremely important in the long-term goal of stabilizing the region and allowing allied forces some semblance of victory in the wake of military setbacks and local political problems. However, in what appears to be a major rift between transatlantic allies, United States Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has recently begun questioning the effectiveness of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces in the overall Afghani counter-insurgency effort.
While it is easy to assume that these comments are a direct result of a proposed change in British southern Afghanistan strategy, they actually seem to stem from a variety of U.S. regional concerns-chief among them are maintaining adequate troop levels.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that Secretary Gates was reviewing plans for sending 3,000 additional U.S. marines to still-volatile southern regions of the country in order to prepare for what has been described as a possible "spring offensive" by remnants of the Taliban. On Wednesday of this week, those marines looked almost certain to be deployed in order to fulfill gaps in coverage caused by the inability of other allied countries (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Canada) to release additional troops for action in the area. With the exception of Canada, these are crucial European allies that Gates risks pushing away in terms of transatlantic understanding and cooperation.
However, an inability to deploy troops seems to be only be a single component of this most recent divergence within the alliance-Gates' comments this week came on the heels of UK plans to create a minor change in strategies by bolstering local counter-insurgency attempts by using what are called "arbakai." Untrained men, these Afghani units would use drums and other loud noises in order to rally their towns against terrorist action if any should appear-the hope being that a sense of community first-response action would better support the struggling Afghani security forces. The U.S., however, believes that such a move would only allow Taliban leaders who are still in Afghanistan to co-opt these untrained local groups and undermine attempts at stability.
While it is easy to assume that these comments are a direct result of a proposed change in British southern Afghanistan strategy, they actually seem to stem from a variety of U.S. regional concerns-chief among them are maintaining adequate troop levels.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that Secretary Gates was reviewing plans for sending 3,000 additional U.S. marines to still-volatile southern regions of the country in order to prepare for what has been described as a possible "spring offensive" by remnants of the Taliban. On Wednesday of this week, those marines looked almost certain to be deployed in order to fulfill gaps in coverage caused by the inability of other allied countries (the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Canada) to release additional troops for action in the area. With the exception of Canada, these are crucial European allies that Gates risks pushing away in terms of transatlantic understanding and cooperation.
However, an inability to deploy troops seems to be only be a single component of this most recent divergence within the alliance-Gates' comments this week came on the heels of UK plans to create a minor change in strategies by bolstering local counter-insurgency attempts by using what are called "arbakai." Untrained men, these Afghani units would use drums and other loud noises in order to rally their towns against terrorist action if any should appear-the hope being that a sense of community first-response action would better support the struggling Afghani security forces. The U.S., however, believes that such a move would only allow Taliban leaders who are still in Afghanistan to co-opt these untrained local groups and undermine attempts at stability.
Be the first to comment on this story