Kuwait Times

Published Date: September 23, 2009
By Claire Truscott

For 50 hours US Marines crept through a minefield of hidden, deadly explosives in western Afghanistan's Buji Bhast Pass. By the time mortars started to fly in, the convoy from 2/3 Fox company had already been hit by three remote-control bombs, the increasingly sophisticated home-made explosives that have become the fatal scourge of the Afghan war. Their agonizing trek illustrated the scale of the challenge that underscores a new warning issued by the top commander in Afghanistan, US General Stanley McChrys
tal, that the West's anti-Taleban mission could be staring at failure.

For 2/3 Fox company's Lieutenant Charles Scott, winning the hearts and minds of locals is a key issue on the ground. "You can put as many forces in this country as you like but we're not going to win this war until the local populace and government stands up and holds their government and people accountable for harbouring this Taleban," he said. More than 100,000 international troops under US and NATO command are battling to wipe out the insurgency.

McChrystal says more troops are needed, according to a leaked review submitted to President Barack Obama's administration, but also that those forces must change tack by fanning out to gain the trust of ordinary Afghans. For Marine Corporal Roman Sena, the challenge was all too real as he led his men on a 36-km patrol that should take seven hours from his base in Delaram, in Farah province, to Golestan, north of the Buji Bhast.

With the route strewn by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and hostile villages, the Marines' slow progress exemplified the problems pinning down Western armies, 20 years after Soviet troops were defeated in Afghanistan. Describing the mission to escort mine-clearing trucks, Sena said "150 metres in front of my truck a mortar round hit". "So I put my food down and shouted at my guys to put their gear on and get inside the trucks," he said. "We'd already been hit by three IEDs at this point.

Obama has already ordered 21,000 more troops to Afghanistan but McChrystal is expected to make a request for more reinforcements and for the change in emphasis from killing rebels to winning the support of ordinary people. International forces "have operated in a manner that distances us - physically and psychologically - from the people we seek to protect... The insurgents cannot defeat us militarily; but we can defeat ourselves," he said.

Analysts say that with the Taleban establishing parallel power structures in many parts of the country, and a significant military presence across virtually the entire country, McChrystal's call has become urgent. Afghan analyst Haroun Mir said the combination of Taleban intimidation of the population and parallel bureaucracy meant they were reaching many places that foreign and Afghan troops are not. "It is getting just like during the communist times, when the government controlled the cities and the (in
surgents) had everywhere else," said Mir, a member of Afghanistan's Centre for Research and Policy Studies.

McChrystal was highly critical of a corrupt Afghan government for hampering the international mission to win over ordinary Afghans - slating weak state institutions, "malign" actions of power-brokers and abuse of power. His review also called for a much larger and better trained Afghan security force, which is hampered by poor morale, illiteracy and corruption. For now, units such as the 2/3 Fox company are stuck on the frontline. After hitting five IEDs in the course of their marathon patrol through the B
huji Bhast, Lieutenant Dan Nagourney said the convoy was lucky to have come out with just one minor casualty. "All that 'cos of IEDs," he said. - AFP