War Is Boring

Axeghanistan ’09: Mosque Makeover

05.11.09

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.

state-dept-rep-ron-barkley-and-baraki-barak-residents-oct-18-2009.JPG

by DAVID AXE

You can’t swing a dead goat in Baraki Barak district without hitting a mosque. But then, you’d never hit a mosque with a dead goat. That’d be very very insensitive. Around here, religion and farming are the ways to the peoples’ hearts.

On October 18, elements of Able Troop head out, on foot, to the villages surrounding their combat outpost. Led by district sub-governor Mohamed Yasin Ludeen, Ronald Barkley from the U.S. State Department (pictured) and Troop commander Captain Paul Shepard, the soldiers drop in at no fewer than four mosques in three villages. At each, Ludeen, Barkley and Shepard ask to speak to the local mullah. They ask him if he needs anything and explain how he can apply for Army funds to refurbish his mosque.

At the village of Yahaya, the Americans run into an unexpected cultural barrier. The men hanging out at the mosque seem reluctant to say who their mullah is. It might have something to do with the field next door, said to be a gathering place for local insurgents. “Taliban,” the men call them. But in Baraki Barak, “Taliban” might mean anyone the speaker doesn’t like. The mosque at Yahaya straddles the border between the areas that are firmly in the coalition camp, and those where the bad guys, whoever they are, can still operate.

The men at the mosque say they need money to improve a satellite mosque they are building across the street. Walking with Ludeen, Barkley and his soldiers, back towards their base, Shepard mulls his options. “I don’t think we should help them ’til they figure out their Taliban problem,” he says. That’s the carrot at the end of the stick. Run the bad guys out of town, and the U.S. Army will paint your mosque.

(Photo: David Axe)