A US Marine from C company 1/6 24 MEU stands under camouflage netting as he mans a position at a base in Garmser in the southern province of Helmand on May 8, 2008. Helmand, the main source of Afghanistan's opium output, is in the grip of a Taliban-insurgency launched after it was toppled from government in a US-led invasion in late 2001. Most ISAF soldiers in Helmand are British, and were joined by US Marines last week in a push to remove the Taliban from around southern Garmser district.
May 14, 2008: Strategypage Afghan and security forces waited, and waited, for the Taliban Spring Offensive, but it never came. Gun battles with the Taliban were down 50 percent so far, compared to last year. Roadside bomb attacks were about the same. But Taliban casualties were up, as more Afghan and NATO forces went looking for them. Last year, 8,000 people died in Taliban violence. So far this year, the death toll is 1,200, indicating casualties for the year will be about half what they were last year. This year, a higher proportion of the dead are Taliban and al Qaeda, and a lower proportion civilians. While some Taliban commanders have tried to develop new tactics to reduce casualties (smaller units of Taliban, and avoiding contact with police and troops), nothing has worked. The Afghan army is larger (76,000 troops) and better trained than last year, and there are more foreign troops. Worst of all, more tribal leaders have sided with the government this year, meaning tribal militias are also ready to fight Taliban moving through previously pro-Taliban territory.
This year the Taliban switched to terror bombings, and threats against civilians. The suicide bombing campaign has not been very successful. This year's threats involve demands that civilians limit cell phone use, stop watching TV and shut down schools for girls. None of these demands were very popular, and nothing much happened except in areas where the tribal leaders were too scared to stand up to the Taliban. This depended more on tribal politics than anything else. The Taliban movement has always been about tribal politics, with ambitious, and often religious, tribesmen seeing the movement as a way to work themselves into a tribal leadership position. That meant more money, as well as more power.
More Taliban and al Qaeda are being captured, and this provides more information on the state of the terrorist forces, and what their plans are. For example, police recently intercepted a car, rigged as a car bomb, as it was being driven from Pakistan to Kandahar. The driver was paid $150 to deliver the explosives filled car to Kandahar. He, like the three other terrorists in his escort car, were Pakistanis doing it partially out of religious conviction, and partly because it paid well. Over half the Taliban in Afghanistan are from Pakistan.
Al Qaeda has been more prominent in the Afghan fighting this year, and have been taking more losses. Afghan and NATO commanders were taken by surprise when a pro-al Qaeda website reported that one of their leaders, Abu Suleiman al Otaibi, had been killed recently in a battle with foreign troops. Until last year, al Otaibi had been sought in Iraq, where he was a known leader of terrorist forces. But many al Qaeda leaders and technical experts have departed Iraq in the last year. Some have "retired" (gone inactive, and into hiding), but most of those who have disappeared from Iraq have been showing up in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The ones who come to Afghanistan find themselves constantly under attack by Afghan police and foreign troops. In Pakistan, the Taliban is trying to arrange a ceasefire with the government, and negotiate safe havens from which Islamic terrorists can operate against the Afghan government. The Taliban leadership is taking a beating in Afghanistan as well, and also want a safe place to hide out.
KANDAHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan —Gone are the simplistic battlefields of previous Marine generations where as the classic “Rifleman’s Creed” boldly states, “what counts in this war is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our burst, nor the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count.”
Penned more than a half century ago, Marines on the ground in Afghanistan know that the accuracy of their rifles will only get them so far; that only by working with the people of Afghanistan will everlasting improvements be made. However, to work together first requires an understanding of the culture.
“The difficult thing for most people in this area is being able to see in shades of grey – things aren’t black and white. So, it isn’t all about knowing what’s in the book and doing your drills properly, you still need to keep that in mind you need to be safe and secure, however to talk to folks and to understand the cultural nuances of a place and how to move through the society can take a bit of time to master. Some people have a knack for it some people don’t, some people can learn the skill,” said Canadian Capt. Michael Bennett, desk officer, CJ9 Civic Office, Regional Command South.
The Marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, NATO- International Security Assistance Force know the importance of this skill set, and sought out the assistance of local villagers to fine-tune their techniques..
Bennett prefers to explain the benefits of civil relations with locals in worst case scenario terms, and after spending years teaching and training the specifics of Afghan culture he has a clear idea of why it’s important to do the right thing.
“Not having this type of skill or ability in your organization is like not having engine oil in your vehicle,” he said. “Eventually you create enough friction that things begin to seize up, things don’t work for you. So having the skill allows you to better look after the relations with the local population.”
While he freely admits that most of his teaching is common sense, Marines also need to be mindful of local customs.
“The combat zone doesn’t have anything to do with it,” explains 2nd Lt. Chad Bonecutter, Fire Support Team leader, Bravo Company, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 24th MEU, ISAF. “Something we may take as standard and very polite they look at as rude in their culture. So it’s more a culture understanding (task).”
Bonecutter points to the way men are expected to greet, “If they try to hold you hand longer than you want, which makes western cultures a little uncomfortable, but it is very accepted over here. So pulling you hand away pretty quick can be rude.”
In this area, tribes live by an honor code, known as the Pashtunwali, and adapting to another culture while communicating through a linguist can be a challenging experience.
“Shame is really big over here. It’s just a matter of showing respect, (For instance) talking to someone who may speak English but is not the elder, not the one in charge. Don’t hold your conversation with him, use your linguist. That’s why they’ve been disseminated down to the platoon level,” he said.
“The big thing they taught is you are going to talk to the elder, you are not going to talk to the linguist. Make sure you don’t do that, because that is perceived to be rude as well.”
Maj. Bryan Anderson, deputy operations officer, CJ9, ISAF headquarters, emphasized an even more drastic approach to civil affairs.
“Hospitality is even more important here in Afghanistan (than Iraq). It all goes back to the Pashtunwali code,” he said. “The code says “if you offer hospitality then you must offer the last piece of bread that you have to the person you bring into your house. You must even risk your life for that person. It is an honor therefore to be asked into a house, to be a guest in Afghanistan. We have to return the favor; we are guests in this country. So it is important to go above and behind and return the hospitality given to us. Anytime we invite someone onto a base with us, near our vehicles we have to be the ultimate guests offering them anything we can, water maybe the candy bar out of the MRE, anything we have we should offer up to them, because they will certainly do the same.”
It’s the golden rule to the extreme: “Doing it in the context of a combat zone is difficult, but civil affairs is basic common sense if we remember what we would like to see in Jacksonville, (N.C.) or OceanSide, (Calif.) on the weekends when we are home with our family. That’s what the families here in Afghanistan want,” he explained.
Over and over the Marines practiced speaking through their linguist, breaking down complicated issues like medical care, sanitation and security into simpler, more-suited for translation sentences. Each time the locals worked with the Marines to bridge their communication divide.
“It was a friendly area, so they welcomed us. They would tell us what was right and what was wrong,” said Bonecutter.
The right: Marines stuck to the code of the Pashtunwali and were respectful of the village leadership. The wrong: using words that don’t translate correctly, he explained.
Interacting with the local Afghans gave some of the Marines a chance to personalize their presence in country and practice answering questions from local leaders.
“I just put an Afghan face on what we are doing,” explained Lance Cpl. Shannon Shipley, artillery scout observer, Bravo Co, BLT 1/6, 24th MEU, ISAF.
Instead of allowing questions to be phrased in term of what the Marines are doing, he began turning the question back to the villagers asking them in turn if they had brought their grievances up to their local government officials. His method helped reinforce the idea of self-sufficiency within the village, province and country, Bennett pointed out.
While he struggled at first communicating through his linguist, the six hours spent in the village gave him the confidence to deal with an elder correctly. “I got a lot more comfortable talking with them,” he said.
Shipley’s new-found ability should help these Marines avoid Bennett’s worst case scenario.
“The benefit is that they will see that “hey, the Marines really aren’t bad guys,” said Anderson. “If we earn just a little bit of credibility that might make the mission tomorrow easier.”
KABUL (AFP) - US Marines have faced "continuous resistance" from the Taliban since an operation began two weeks ago to clear out a key militant stronghold in southern Afghanistan, the force said Wednesday.
US Marines and British troops under NATO command launched the operation late April in Garmser district in southern Helmand province, a key battleground for the Taliban-led insurgency and an opium-producing centre.
"We're seeing a continuous resistance," said Lieutenant Colonel Kent W. Hayes, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit's second-in-command in Afghanistan.
"They are consistently engaging us," he said, but added that "the bottom line is: When we fight them, we defeat them."
Hayes refused to comment on militant casualties from the operation, saying it was not policy to give figures, adding Garmser was a "planning, staging and logistic hub" for the rebels.
But he did not dismiss a statement Tuesday by Helmand province governor Gulab Mangal that over 150 militants, many of them Al-Qaeda-linked "foreign fighters," had been killed in the past week in Garmser, which borders Pakistan.
Hayes also said his troops had disrupted Taliban logistics networks in Garmser.
"We are noticing that we have influenced that area greatly and we have seen that they are starting to have trouble reinforcing and getting arms and things like that," he said.
Garmser is said to be a gateway for fresh rebel fighters and supplies coming into Afghanistan, where the Taliban-led insurgency is fiercest along areas bordering Pakistan.
Some rebels are believed to have their first encounters with international troops in Garmser before moving north.
There are about 70,000 international soldiers in Afghanistan helping the government. The 2,400-strong Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed in March to help NATO forces over the summer, traditionally when the insurgency flares.
A separate US-led coalition including special forces has in the past week reported significant Taliban casualties in Garmser.
The Taliban were removed from government in 2001 in a US-led invasion launched when the extremist regime did not hand over their Al-Qaeda allies following the 9/11 attacks.
The operation forced Taliban and Al-Qaeda across the border into Pakistan, where Afghan and US officials claim they have safe havens from which they can plot their bloody insurgency in Afghanistan.
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - International and Afghan troops forged ahead with an offensive against the Taliban near the Pakistan border on Tuesday, with a governor insisting 150 rebels had been killed in the past week.
US Marines and British troops under NATO command launched a significant new operation two weeks ago in Garmser district in southern Helmand province, a key battleground for a Taliban-led insurgency and an opium-producing centre.
Soldiers in a separate US-led coalition have also reported several engagements in the area in the past week: they said Tuesday they had killed a dozen rebels in Garmser on Monday
Slide show of pictures taken in Afghanistan. These are not all of our troops, just different Afghani people.
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Afghanistan
Clash Proves Fatal for Enemy Attackers
Fri, 09 May 2008 11:47:00 -0500
Coalition forces searched compounds in the province's Garmsir district,
targeting a Taliban insurgent associated with procurement and smuggling of
various types of small arms, munitions, fuses and explosives.
American Forces
Press Service
WASHINGTON, May 9, 2008 - More than a dozen insurgents were killed during a
coalition forces operation to disrupt Taliban support operations in
Afghanistan's Helmand province yesterday, military officials reported.
Troops found PK machine guns, AK-47 assault rifles,
rocket-propelled grenades, mortar rounds, fuses, small-arms ammunition and
ammunition vests on the compound, and destroyed them to prevent future use.
(From a Combined Joint Task Force 101 news release.)
Related Sites:
Combined Joint Task Force 101
NATO International Security Assistance
Force
I bought a manly looking journal for my nephew who is deployed in Afghanistan in Helmand province. I'm having people write in it their encouragements and appreciation for his service. If you would like to write some encouraging words for him, please feel free to do so. I'll print them off and paste your words in his journal. You can write something long or short. It's up to you. I'll be sending this journal to his wife Monday, May 21st so she, his family there and his friends can write in it. Then she will send it to him.
Please know your words matter. I've started several of these journals. One was for a National Guardsmen who was getting very discouraged by all of the false media reports about Iraq. He actually told me "I will treasure this always." I gave him his journal when he came home on RR. He took it back to Iraq with him and he said he read it all the time.
Another one I started for a Marine from my community that was injured badly in Iraq. I did not know this man, and I only seen him once but never talked with him. However I did meet his mom, and to this day I'll never forget her words of thankfulness. Anyway I took his journal with me everywhere I went and I asked everyone I came in contact with if they wanted to write in it. Many people wanted to and did. He's had several surgeries and is still recovering. This was about a year and half ago. When I took the journal to his mom, she welcomed it in tears. A couple of days ago I seen her and she seen a journal in my hand and wanted to know what it was for and I told her. She was the first person to write in it.
Her son, his wife and their baby moved to California right after I got the journal to him. So I never met him or his family. But...his mom told me "He said that journal made a big difference in his life. It helped him in his recovery and he still reads it." I did not know that until a few days ago.
So please know all of your encouraging words matter!
If you want your full name with your words but are not comfortable with your name on the internet, you can send your words encouragement to me by private message here on Vox.
To all of you who do participate in this, I want to tell you up front "You're doing a great service for one who is doing a great service for you and for this country."
I'd also like to encourage you to do the same for any of our troops and/or their wives/families. Their service is of great honor as well.
Thank you so much
Twana
