‘Touch wood,’ Karzai said to me. You hear it all the time
31 May 2008
From the President downwards, all Afghans know that the peace in Helmand is precarious.Fraser Nelson reports from a shattered land of corruption and murky power where warlords wait to see if the West has what it takes to stay the course and thwart a horrific new conflict
When Musa Qala was retaken in January, it symbolised the turnaround in Helmand. The Afghan National Army led the offensive with embedded British soldiers — the model successfully used by Americans in Iraq. Britain has accepted an offer of American help and Marines are now patrolling the Pakistan border. There are 7,700 troops, and none has been killed in a firefight this year. With the bases lost and the Taleban driven out, its main enemy is the landmines planted in the dust tracks.
‘The Taleban realise they can no longer control the ground, so they switch to this tactic instead,’ says Mark Carleton-Smith, Commander of Taskforce Helmand in his headquarters in Lashkar Gah village, dubbed ‘Lash Vegas’ by camp residents. The troops are finding three times as many IEDs as people are caught by them. Most of the victims of the IEDs are Afghans. ‘The Taleban base their legitimacy on a claim to be heirs of the mujahedin and custodians of the Afghan people,’ he says. ‘They have dramatically proved that they are not.’
The Taleban explosives are several grades below the sophisticated Iranian-made devices which tore through Land Rovers in Iraq. I heard how a suicide bomber exploded seven feet away from one British soldier yet only blew his helmet off. No ball bearings had been fitted to the suicide belt. That said, the frequency of these incidents is increasing. For all their crudeness, such attacks — unknown four years ago — are now happening at the rate of two a month.
Aged 44, Carleton-Smith is the youngest brigadier in the military and already tipped as a future chief of the defence staff. He is strikingly realistic about the task — it is not rebuilding government, but introducing deeply suspicious tribesmen to the concept of central government. ‘Any previous experience of government was of a predatory and feral police force whose only role was confiscatory,’ he says. ‘They have no expectation from central government at all. So we are trying to merge local tribal customs with local government.’
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Water
May 29th, 2008 11:02am Report this comment"Only in Afghanistan could the rockets being fired into the Kandahar airbase be seen as a sign of progress" surreal.
Water
May 29th, 2008 11:15am Report this comment"Only in Afghanistan could the rockets being fired into the Kandahar airbase be seen as a sign of progress" surreal.
Water
May 29th, 2008 11:55am Report this commentGlad to see the posting system is working as normal.
Ray
May 31st, 2008 10:13am Report this commentThe most cutting comment on this whole tragic imbroglio comes from Charles moore writing in the Telegraph... "Why have we allowed ourselves to fantasise about ideal states, rather than exerting our power to make the best of real ones? Afghanistan won't have democracy as we know it; it won't suddenly want its women to wear jeans and choose their boyfriends; it won't forget tribe and embrace diversity. Perhaps this is a statement of the obvious, but, in our rather sanctimonious politics, the obvious is not always easily stated."
Ed Hummer
May 31st, 2008 2:41pm Report this commentHe was probably told to say ¨touch wood¨instead of the ubiquitous and equally meaningless Inshallah to any infidels he met.
Praetorian
May 31st, 2008 10:01pm Report this commentI am returning to Helmand for a tour of duty this Sep. I thoroughly recommend this article as it is the most informative and accurate one I have read on the situation in both Helmand and wider Afghanistan. Our presence in Helmand guarantees nothing except that the Taliban will not regain control. However, that is worth fighting for, the alternative is a terrorist sanctuary from which further attacks will be launched against the West. I hope the politicians keep their nerve and start to make a better case for our engagement.
Mungo Lockhart
June 9th, 2008 2:16am Report this commentA very good article - we are in for the long haul.
Note the milder comparison with Mexico where I live. Narcotics bosses apparently offer their front line Governmnent opponents a choice between cooperation or a bullet. This is not a choice.
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