Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/13138
6A – Daily News – Friday, July 9, 2010 The challenge of Kandahar KAND AHAR, Afghanistan (MCT) — Rahmatullah, a slender Afghan engineer who lives in Kandahar city, tried to be polite when young Shawn Adams of Digby, Nova Scotia, offered to help his efforts to build a local school. Sgt. Adams, 23, was leading a Canadian foot patrol when he encoun- tered Rahmatullah, who complained that he and his neighbors had donated land for a school that the Afghan government has refused to build. Adams promised to pass the complaint up the chain to his military supe- riors. But Rahmatullah simply sighed and said: "I'm sorry, sir. I've been here six years. I've heard these promises so many times I don't believe them anymore.' " The encounter exposed the limits of good inten- tions in Kandahar, a city dominated by the Taliban, ill-served by a corrupt government, and patrolled by foreign forces just now getting around to gover- nance and development, nearly nine years into the longest war the United States has ever fought. In the struggle to coax Kandahar civilians away from the Taliban, U.S. commanders have ordered NATO troops to join with civilian development experts to create a compe- tent government in a city where none exists. But the effort has so far seen few concrete results. Development projects have been modest and plagued by insurgent attacks or threats against Afghan workers. Civilians complain of shakedowns by Afghan police. Many U.S. soldiers say they don't fully trust their nom- inal allies in the Afghan police or army, who are scheduled to take respon- sibility for security by next summer. What little government exists in Kandahar is over- shadowed by a cabal of Afghan hustlers who have milked connections to high government officials to earn illicit fortunes. Last month, a congressional subcommittee said Afghan warlords have siphoned off millions of dollars through protection rackets involving security escorts for NATO convoys. All this weighs down U.S. efforts to bring Kan- dahar under control. The province is the focus of the "surge" of 30,000 troops ordered by President Barack Obama in Decem- ber, but the heavy combat sweeps promised by top U.S. commanders in brief- ings to reporters last win- ter have not taken place. Those same commanders now say there will be no massive military operation here, instead describing a sustained effort designed to establish security bit by bit to pave the way for development and proper governance. Most of the added troops have been patrolling Kandahar for weeks, pumping Afghans for information on insur- gents while promising development and a respon- sive government. An accompanying civilian surge — specialists in government, development, agriculture, policing — is cranking out various com- munity projects from their air-conditioned office redoubts. The Taliban have responded with a surge of their own — an onslaught of assassinations, rocket attacks, car bombings and homemade bombs. The 103 NATO troops killed in MCT photo A member of the U.S. Army's military police, left, walks past an Afghan National Police humvee at the start of a joint patrol operation, May 22, in Kandahar, Afghanistan. June made it the deadliest single month since the war began. This is the landscape that greets Gen. David H. Petraeus as he takes com- mand following the firing of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, whose time at the helm lasted just a year. Petraeus has his own short timetable: he is under pressure to show swift results in order to meet Obama's determination to begin drawing down troop levels by August 2011. The leadership change reinforces the sense here that the U.S. has been engaged in a series of one- year wars since toppling the Taliban in 2001. Because the typical troop rotation is about 12 months, each year brings a new approach that often is at odds with the previous effort. Kevin Melton, an American contractor who heads civilian operations in the Arghandab district northwest of Kandahar, said the U.S. began mak- ing a concerted effort in Kandahar only a year ago. From 2001 to 2006, there was no significant U.S. or NATO troop presence in Kandahar. "Why has it taken eight years to commit the resources to do what we really need to do here?" Melton asked. "We took our eyes off the ball. So we've really been at this for a year, not eight years." In Arghandab, Melton works in the same heavily guarded building on a U.S. military base as four Afghan district officials struggling to create a local government. Afghans who wish to visit the district office must first pass through three security posts — a search by Afghan police, then Afghan Army and finally a U.S. search. The tight security underscores the frailty of the fledging local govern- ment, whose officials must take refuge on American military bases. When the Arghandab district gover- nor, Abdul Jabar, ventured out June 15, he was killed by a car bomb. Corruption is another corrosive problem. The national government of President Hamid Karzai is riddled with officials who have enriched themselves through bribery, govern- ment contracts and the nation's lucrative opium trade. At Camp Nathan Smith in downtown Kandahar, the secured offices of U.S. development officials fea- ture a chart of the Karzai family tree. Laid out like a prosecutor's crime family operation, the chart docu- ments the expansive busi- ness empire of Karzai's extended family. Western officials have accused Karzai's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, of parlaying family connections into an enterprise that controls trucking, security, drug and protection operations. The president and his brother, who heads the Kandahar provincial coun- cil, have called the accusa- tions false and politically motivated. For soldiers charged with driving the Taliban from Kandahar, convinc- ing ordinary Afghans that their government and security forces are honest and capable is daunting, especially because U.S. troops spend an inordinate amount of time trying to survive roadside bombs and ambushes on the roads. "Our focus right now is on staying alive," said Sgt. 1st Class Jeremiah Mason, an 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper whose platoon has encountered nearly 50 roadside bombs during several hundred foot patrols in Arghandab. The platoon has built good relations with local villagers, but has been able to mount only small aid donations. There is virtu- ally no local government presence — only farming villages with no plumbing or electricity. U.S. officers here carry "talking point" cards issued by the U.S. mili- tary. The message: The Afghan army and police are taking the lead. The Afghan government is ready to serve the people. But for all the attempts to put an Afghan face on the future, it is clear to all that this is an American show. Even illiterate Afghan villagers know that the U.S. provides the money, the troops and the leadership for what is called "Operation Hamkari," or "coopera- tion" in Pashto and Dari. "We're the funders, the people in charge, and the Afghans know that," said an American aid official in Kandahar. "But we have to act like the government until the actual govern- ment is able to take over." Nor is U.S.-Afghan cooperation running smoothly on security oper- ations. Afghan army and police units are housed in separate compounds next to U.S. bases. Soldiers say they fear the Afghans will steal supplies and weapons or leak informa- tion to the Taliban. Offi- cers say they do not tell Afghan security forces of impending missions. One hot afternoon in Kandahar city, U.S. mili- tary police serving as men- tors to Afghan police arrived at a police sub-sta- tion for a previously scheduled foot patrol. The Afghans had disappeared. Afghan National Police from a different unit had to be roused from mid-day naps and dragooned into patrolling. "The ANP is only good for five or six hours," said Capt. Michael Thurman, commander of the 293rd Military Police Company. "They take a long break at mid-day and they won't stay out overnight." For all the challenges, civilian officials in Kanda- har insist that progress is possible. Bill Harris, the top U.S. reconstruction civilian for Kandahar province, said the troop withdrawal date next summer should con- vince Afghan that this is their last chance. "Now is the time," Har- ris said. "We've never had the troop strength here we have now. We've never the resources we have now. If we'd had this strategy two or three years ago, things would look a lot better than they do now," he said. We will also be auctioning a vehicle this year 9th Annual ECUADORIAN DINNER & SILENT AUCTION FUNDRAISER Sunday, July 11th 5-8 pm Proceeds will go to support the “For His Children” orphanage in Quito Ecuador Dinner Tickets Adults $15.00 Children $8.00 Couples $25.00 seating is limited Please join us and be part of this wonderful experience We will also be having a raffle for $500 Tickets available @ The Vineyard or call 527-2449, “In His Name we love His Children” worth of groceries or gas at the auction. Tickets are $5 each, or $20 for 5 tickets.