Carlotta Gall of NYT is embedding with the Anbar-hardened Marines in Garmser and is reporting that the young platoon leaders are putting their Iraq experience to good use:
As a first step, the marines promised to provide a strong security cordon so those villagers who had fled could return without fear to rebuild their homes and reopen the bazaar.
When on patrol, the marines carry a small gadget the size of an old Polaroid camera that takes fingerprints, photos and an iris scan of people they meet. It is used to build a database of the residents so they can easily spot strangers, the marines say. The Afghans accepted the imposition without protest.
A couple of things make me suspicious.
First is the “Marines saved NATO’s ass” narrative now in vogue with American reporters. We desperately need a Nir Rosen or a Patrick Cockburn in Afghanistan, an intrepid Pashtu-speaking free agent to go and check things out. Before that happens, I’ll have a hard time buying this particular “things are looking up” meme.
Secondly, I wonder if our new-found love for COIN has blinded us from seeing the obvious: no matter what their education, GIs ain’t social workers. From what I remember about Afghans, cordoning off a village and fingerprinting everybody maybe isn’t such a great idea if you want to keep the Taleban at bay. Particularly since the Marines are going to pull out in a few months, leaving the “collaborators” screwed for good.
Related: Seth G. Jones has a new 177-page monograph out at RAND titled “Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan”. Haven’t read it yet, download at your own risk.
UPDATE: For a more intelligent take on the Gall story, visit Registan.
It’s good to see there are still many out there exercising their freedom of speech, and doing so without any knowledge of what is really going on over here. We make no direct comparisions between Iraq and Afghanistan, but there are some basic tenents of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs that are common across all cultures. The Marines are very quick and eager to learn and adapt to the Afghan culture and their ways, and the Aghans proactively take the time and opportuity to teach us as we live and work side by side with them. You got a couple things right however, one, we are not social workers, two, persistence presence is vital to success or, as you say, “collaborators” may very well become screwed.
LtCol Rick Hall, CO, 2dBn, 7thMar
It’s always a humbling experience to realise your blog is actually read by those you write about…
Anyway, many thanks for your post. Of course you’re right. I have absolutely no first-hand knowledge of the operations in Garmser, and things may well be very different from what I could gather from the NYT piece.
Since I come from an ISAF country that refuses to even discuss (publicly or otherwise) the possibility of sending combat troops to help out in the South, I guess the prospect of leaving the locals to fend for themselves after the foreign troops leave is a sore spot.
Just to clarify a point; my battalion is not the one in Garmsir, we are conducting a Police Training and Mentoring mission across eight separate districts in both the Helmand and Farah provinces. Although we have experienced a lot of contact and have suffered many casualties, our focus remains on the people, and we will not be detered–working to improve their security and prosperity by properly training the police, imbuing them with honorable character, and investing in projects that will improve their lives. It is an honor to be serving these people. Thanks.
Semper fi, LtCol Rick Hall