Time, Trust Key to Progress in Afghanistan
(December 9, 2010) |
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| WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2010 – Before he went to the southern
area of Afghanistan's Helmand province in October 2009 he
wondered whether success was possible, a Marine Corps
colonel said during an interview here today.
“I'm now convinced that it absolutely can be done, having
watched the Marines do it on a regular basis for a year,”
said Col. Randy Newman, commander of the 7th Marine Regiment
based in Twenty Nine Palms, Calif.
As commander of Regimental Combat Team 7, Newman led Marine
Corps forces fighting to establish security in Marjah, while
working to stabilize Nawa and Garmsir, where Marines had
largely cleared out insurgents.
“In Nawa, we're seeing great progress,” Newman said. “The
Afghans were able to assume some of the security, as I left
[in November]. We still have work to do in developing the
government and the economic base, but it's headed in the
right direction. Same thing in Garmsir, we're seeing
progress.”
In Marjah, where Marines have operated since February 2009,
the fighting isn't over, he said.
“It will take us some time, but I saw all the encouraging
signs that we would expect to see out of Marjah, given where
it is in the process,” he said.
The Marine strategy in southern Helmand is to place
eight-to-10-man groups in villages to ensure security for
the locals.
“I think it's a partnership with the Afghan people that
formed out of being there with them on the ground, in their
village, living there with them,” Newman said. “The benefits
of that just come automatically.”
After 30 years of conflict, Afghans are ready for something
else, he said, adding, “You give them the opportunity to
pick that something else, they will do so.”
Comparing Afghanistan counterinsurgency operations to those
in Iraq, he said fighting the threat is similar in some
ways, but the people are very different.
“In Afghanistan the population is widely dispersed, with
very little of what we consider the modern effects on
infrastructure: electricity and paved roads, things like
that,” Newman said. “Whereas Iraq was used to having robust
government, robust infrastructure, and I guess I would say
more modern in terms of the infrastructure and how it
touched the people.”
That means that counterinsurgent forces in Afghanistan have
to be widely dispersed, where the people live, he said.
“Small units of men partnered directly with small groups of
people in as wide an area as we can reach - that's what the
Marines are doing in the Helmand river [valley],” he said.
Those small groups of Marines see success in ways that
others can't, Newman said.
“They are in place where before they got there, a guy told
these people how to live, treated them brutally and gave
them very little freedom,” he said. “[The Marines] come
there, that man leaves, and the Afghan people get to
determine what they want their future to be – for their
kids, for themselves, for everyone. I think that's why the
Marines enjoy going back, because they can see success, very
clearly.”
Newman said there are three groups in Helmand that the
Marines are contesting with: the Taliban, an ideologically
based group; people who are hungry for power or are in
powerful positions and want to keep them; and people who are
“just trying to make a buck, money.”
“So whether it be ideology, politics or money, I think we
find three groups of people who will find nothing of benefit
from us coming there and providing additional security and
making their government more effective,” he said.
Newman said in the Afghan struggle for money, power, and
ideological control – “the way things ought to run there” –
the Marines are working to disarm the various factions.
“We've got to get them to understand that they can't pursue
it by means of force [or by] threatening people,” he said.
“If they want to enter into the political realm and discuss,
and vote, that's the right way to go about letting them
decide what their future is. It can't be done by force of
power.”
Meanwhile, the population is skeptical of Marine efforts, he
said.
“I think what they've conditioned themselves to now is to
play their cards very close to their chest, take a look at
who's there and what their intentions are and how
trustworthy they are,” he said. “And earning the trust of
the people takes time – we go back to that issue in
counterinsurgency of time. With the Afghan people
especially, we've got to take the time to earn their trust,
before we can take great steps forward.”
Marine forces are earning the trust of the people by being
present and demonstrating their intentions are in the
Afghans' interest, he said.
“In the Helmand river valley, the places where we've been
long enough to start to earn trust, two years or so, I think
we begin to see the people recognize that they can trust
what we're showing them as an option for the future,” Newman
said.
Helmand has a primarily agrarian economy, and one focus in
more secure areas is establishing legal crops, he said.
“Farmers are growing whatever farmers can make money on.
Before we got there it was poppy. But in the area where
we've been for a while, like Nawa, the poppy production fell
off and they were more than happy to grow wheat, cotton, or
any other crop,” he said. “In places we haven't been yet,
it's poppy, but that's changing as we spread our influence
through the Helmand river valley.”
The three groups fighting for control in Helmand make it
almost risk-free for people to grow poppy, he said.
“There's a high profit margin for the farmer. They'll come
to the farmer and get it, they'll give the farmer the
supplies to plant it, so it eliminates a lot of the risk
that can be associated with farming,” Newman said.
Now, Newman said, the Marines have proven to the people they
can grow other crops and still support their families.
In discussing what the Afghan people need to sustain the
gains coalition forces have helped make possible, Newman
said a couple of resources are the most critical.
“If they say a school needs to be built, they're more than
happy to build a school. They don't want somebody to come in
and build it for them, all they'd like for us to do is help
with the resources, and then let them build a school,” he
said. “It will be the school that they want, and most
importantly the one that they built. So they need help with
materials, and most importantly they need human resources.”
Establishing local governments in Afghanistan requires a
level of literacy and education in the population, Newman
said. While coalition nations and the Afghan government are
working to educate more of the remote population, those
efforts will take time.
“When you talk about them moving forward in their ability to
govern themselves, there may be a period of time where
that's not achievable, for them to have local representation
that meets all those requirements,” he said. “So I think
it's resources, again – all they're looking for is a little
bit of peace and security for them to operate within, with
some resources that we provide them, both human and
material.” | |
By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2010
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