Troops battle Taliban, leaving alone illegal crops, in skirmishes in the volatile south
lc
Troops battle Taliban, leaving alone illegal crops, in skirmishes in
the volatile south
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/5750778.html
JASON STRAZIUSO Associated Press
May 2, 2008, 11:58PM
GARMSER, AFGHANISTAN — Gunfire zings in near Sgt. Dan Linas' patrol,
pinning his squad down against a dirt berm. The Marines peer across
the field to their left, at three mud huts and a grove of trees,
searching for the muzzle flash. Then they cut loose with their M-16s.
The sun is barely up, but for the men of Bravo Company's 2nd Platoon,
the firefight proves just the first in a series of skirmishes Friday
that will see Marines unleash earsplitting barrages of machine-gun
fire, mortars and artillery, most of which land just 600 yards away.
To the east, north and south lie bountiful fields of opium poppies, to
the west an unseen enemy.
Airstrikes and artillery have thundered around this southern Afghan
town since several companies of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit
took the offensive before dawn Tuesday and swept into Garmser, which
sits in Taliban territory where no NATO troops had ventured.
Moving into the south
The British military is responsible for Helmand Province, but its
7,500 soldiers, along with 2,500 Canadian troops in neighboring
Kandahar, hasn't been enough manpower to tame Afghanistan's south. So
the 2,400-strong 24th Marines have come to help.
The push into Garmser is their first mission since arriving from the
U.S. last month, and it is the farthest south that American troops
have been in several years. Most of the 33,000 U.S. troops in
Afghanistan operate along the border with Pakistan.
Some of the men in the 24th Marines have seen combat in the toughest
parts of Iraq, and their commanders hope that experience will help
calm the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
The Marines in Garmser do not plan a long stay. Their only mission is
to open the road for a Marine convoy. They sit and defend the 10-foot-
wide lane of dirt.
After returning fire from the berm across the empty field, the men
under Linas — a 21-year-old from Richmond, Va. — jog 100 yards to the
platoon command center, where Marines in the lookout post provide
covering machine-gun fire.
The platoon mortar team then dials in coordinates and fires off shells
in high arcs toward the suspected location of Taliban fighters,
throwing up puffs of smoke in the field. There is no way to tell if
any militants are hit.
In the foreground, perhaps 40 yards from the Marines' post, a half
dozen Afghan men work in their illegal poppy fields, slicing the bulbs
to coax out opium resin that will be used to make heroin. They look up
as the mortars boom out, then go back to work.
Mere moments later, the Marines hear a rocket being fired in the
distance. Everyone rushes for cover, pushing themselves up against mud
walls or down into trenches. The boom of exploding missile rattles the
outpost but it's a couple hundred yards off target.
'Pure harassment'
A wave of gunfire rings out as Marines react, until sergeants shout
for the men to cease fire. One Marine infantryman with a team still on
the berm states the obvious: "They missed."
Capt. Charles O'Neill, the company commander, says all-day potshots by
Taliban fighters are little more than nuisance attacks. The militants
use binoculars and have forward observers with cell phones to try to
aim better at the Marines, he says.
"This is pure asymmetric harassment," he says. "They'll pop out of a
position and fire a rocket or mortar."
The Marines don't move into the field to take on the Taliban at close
range. Their mission is to open the road that goes through Garmser,
and nothing more. NATO troops are not authorized to eradicate poppy
crops, and the Marines have assured farmers their fields won't be
touched.
At the end of the day, no Marines are hurt or wounded. The Taliban
casualty count is not known.
[][]
Poppy Fields Are Now a Front Line in Afghan War
May 16, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/world/asia/16drugs.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
KABUL, Afghanistan — In a walled compound outside Kabul, two members
of Colombia’s counternarcotics police force are trying to teach raw
Afghan recruits how to wage close-quarters combat.
lc
http://www.afghannews.net/index.php?action=show&type=news&id=2618
24. January 2008, 05:21
BBC News - A former US ambassador to the United Nations has criticised
President George Bush's attempts to eradicate the opium poppy fields
in Afghanistan. Richard Holbrooke has described the US policy as
"spectacularly unsuccessful".
The administration is "wasting" around $1bn annually on a programme
which actually encourages farmers to support the Taleban, he says.
According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, only 13 of
Afghanistan's 34 provinces are "poppy free".
The problem is specially acute in the unstable south of the country.
'Ineffective'
Writing a column in The Washington Post newspaper, Mr Holbrooke says
Mr Bush's vocal support in the last two years for aerial spraying of
poppy fields highlighted what was wrong with the US policy.
Mr Bush's remarks "are part of the story behind the spectacularly
unsuccessful US counter-narcotics program in Afghanistan", he says.
Mr Bush backed down from backing aerial spraying because the Afghan
government and the international community argued it would "create a
backlash against" Kabul and Washington.
"But even without aerial eradication, the programme, which costs $1bn
a year, may be the single most ineffective programme in the history of
American foreign policy," Mr Holbrooke writes.
"It's not just a waste of money. It actually strengthens the Taleban
and al-Qaeda, as well as criminal elements within Afghanistan," he
writes.
With the Taleban insurgency still raging, counter-narcotics teams in
Afghanistan have been unable to make any impact on the poppy problem
in the south.
Experts say stopping poppy production requires more than just laws.
The authorities have to also provide alternative livelihoods for the
cultivators and build access to markets and education, among other
things - things which are very difficult to deliver in an unstable
environment.
On May 6, 5:44 am, lc <lol7...@msn.com> wrote:
> Narrow mission for Marines in lush Afghan poppy fields
> Troops battle Taliban, leaving alone illegal crops, in skirmishes in
> the volatile southhttp://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/5750778.html
> May 16, 2007http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/world/asia/16drugs.html?_r=1&oref=s...