[NYTr] A Bloody Failure: Afghan Military Mission in Helmand
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The Independent - Jan 27, 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2190025.ece
Helmand is a bloody failure
By Kim Sengupta in Lashkar Gar, Helmand
The explosion tore the suicide bomber apart and set alight parked cars.
The guard who had shot him was seriously injured as were some Afghans
on their way to the mosque for Friday prayers. Terrified women
clutching their children fled as ambulances and police cars arrived.
The attack was in the centre of Lashkar Gar, near the office of the
governor, which we had passed in a convoy with British diplomats just
minutes previously. The target this time, however, was neither
government officials nor foreigners, but the offices of an aid agency.
The attack is ominous for British policy in Helmand. A year ago this
month John Reid, then the defence secretary, announced the deployment
of 5,000 British troops to Helmand. The three-year mission would
hopefully end, he said, without a shot being fired in anger.
Now, after more than half a million rounds fired and dozens killed in
some of the fiercest fighting that British forces have engaged in since
Korea in 1950-53, intense efforts are under way to kick start
reconstruction, which had been badly hampered because aid agencies had
deemed Helmand too dangerous to operate in.
There are fears that the attempted bombing of one of the few agencies
which had returned to the province would again keep humanitarian
organisations away from Helmand and set back the process of winning
loyalty and support, which British officials acknowledge is imperative,
after months of fighting the Taliban. Although hundreds of insurgents
were killed, there were also civilian casualties.
The British mission, the "Third Afghan War" according to many, is
entering its most critical phase. A winter lull has followed a summer
and autumn of conflict. But no one doubts that the Taliban will launch
an offensive once the snow on the mountain passes melts. To add to the
problems, Mohammed Daoud, Helmand's governor and Britain's main ally
there, was sacked by the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, at the end of
last year.
Instead of drawing down the numbers in Afghanistan, UK forces here are
likely to be reinforced. At the same time there is a growing
possibility that the US "surge" in Baghdad will make it impractical to
go through with the envisaged British withdrawal of 3,000 troops from
Iraq.
But there appears to be hope for Afghanistan among the British military
and diplomats. With that, however, is an acknowledgement that mistakes
had been made in the past.
Yesterday was Nick Kay's last day as the UK regional co-ordinator for
Helmand, a job encompassing reconstruction, as well dealing with the
problem of opium production. He said: "It has been a lot more intense
and more challenging than anything that can have been captured in the
planning process.But ... we know we have to win over the Afghan
population." He added that, despite the violence in Helmand, the
security situation in Lashkar Gar was not as bad as that in Iraq.
But Amir Mohammed, 65, a farmer, said: "We have had nothing but
fighting since the British came. A lot of people have been killed by
them. The Taliban are back all over Helmand. They are in Musa Qala,
Nawzad, Sangin and Garamsir. There is no security. At least there was
security under the Taliban. Also they are now talking about destroying
our poppy fields. How will we eat?"
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