War Is Boring

Axeghanistan ’09: Farmers’ Powwow

01.11.09

Categorie: Afghanistan, Axe in Afghanistan '09, COIN, David Axe |

It was a war we thought we’d won. But after eight years of escalating violence, the Afghanistan conflict has morphed into something perhaps unwinnable. U.S.-led forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to deny sanctuary to Al Qaeda, a goal we’ve largely achieved. But in years of occupation, Washington has apparently conflated counter-terrorism with nation-building. Now the U.S., NATO and their allies are struggling to destroy a deeply-rooted insurgency in country with a corrupt, ineffective government, poor infrastructure and few prospects for everyday people, but to fight. David Axe visits U.S. forces to see for himself.

afghan-farmers-at-cop-baraki-barak-during-an-agricultural-association-meeting-oct-15-2009.JPG

by DAVID AXE

“Dislocated envy” is the key to security in Logar province, according to Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Gukeisen, commander of 3rd Squadron, 71st Cavalry. That means finding out which Afghans are pre-disposed to cooperating with the coalition, and giving them a little of what they want. Less friendly neighboring villages see these reconstruction projects and want their own. The Army tells them, turn in any bad guys you’re harboring, and we’ll build stuff for you, too.

It’s critical to build to the right things, according to Air Force Brigadier General Steve Kwast. “If we come in with our normal pattern and build a clinic and a school, the reality is, five years later you go back and they have goats in the school. Why? Because what they needed was a place for their goats, not a school — they’re already teaching their children just fine. We as Americans, as the West, we tend to import our idea of what they need on them, instead of asking them.”

Not so, Gukeisen and 3rd Squadron. At a combat outpost in Baraki Barak district on October 15, Captain Paul Shepard’s Able Troop hosts a meeting of some 30 farmers representing the district’s biggest agricultural associations. The “big-time farmers,” as Shepard calls them — all weathered skin, gnarled hands and dusty, calloused feet — crowd the district center adjacent to the outpost with Shepard and a gaggle of agricultural experts from USAID and the Afghan government. The farmers are not shy. We need a well, one says. We need help with exports, another calls out. “We can do that,” Shepard says through his interpreter.

Meanwhile, Staff Sergeant Ashley Hess’ 2nd Platoon braves a bomb-infested road to pay a visit to some isolated farms near the village of Ibed. Clomping across dry fields and hopping over irrigation canals, weighed down by their body armor and weapons, the soldiers chase down startled farmers and ask politely them to fill out surveys. Every farmer that completes a survey, gets a bottle of water.

(Photo: David Axe)

David M says:

November 2, 2009 at 12:28 pm

The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 11/02/2009 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.