Like James, I’ve been admiring the new issue of Time – what caught my eye was its superb report on the Kajaki Damn in Afghanistan. This is Britain’s top reconstruction project in the Afghanistan and it’s taken an American publication to give us the low-down (and a stunning collection of photographs) on how Our Boys are doing. Here are my top five extracts….
1. Military officials say the insurgency doesn’t have the numbers to win a conventional fight. But the Taliban doesn’t need to win. It just needs to outlast the will of foreign nations. Few Afghans believe that the Taliban offers a better alternative to the current government, but many are convinced that it will be around longer
2. There are only 8,500 British troops in Helmand. According to U.S. Army counterinsurgency doctrine, Helmand needs at least 25,000 troops to be secured–nearly half the foreign forces in Afghanistan. NATO officials call the effort in Afghanistan an “economy-of-force operation,” meaning that the few troops available have to be applied strategically
3. As the Taliban controls the only road leading into Kajaki, all the equipment and all the labour have to be flown in by helicopter… The Louis Berger Group, contracted by USAID, would be ready to push the start button today if it weren’t for the security problems…. [Their] warehouse in Kabul is packed with hundreds of crates of equipment that have to be transported to Kajaki, along with some 300 tons of cement. It would take a convoy of trucks just a few days to bring the materials to the site; by helicopter, it will take several months.
4. “We are afraid,” says Madin [an Afghan]. “The Taliban has force. It has power.” [Major Mike] Shervington, who leads about 200 men, asks, “More than me?” Madin shrugs. “You will come down and fight, and you will win,” he concedes. “But you will win only for one hour. Then you will go back to your base. The Taliban will return.”
5. Shervington believes he needs at least another 100 troops to drive out the insurgents in his area, but foreign forces are already stretched thin in Helmand province, and other areas have taken priority. Without additional troops, he can’t hope to gain the confidence and cooperation of villagers like Madin
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