Afghanistan Visit 16 - 22 January 2010
Posted by Linda Gilroy, MP for Plymouth, Sutton, at 15:45, Mon 25 January 2010:
Afghanistan in Transition
With Plymouth based Royal Marines due to deploy to Afghanistan in 2011, I set off on our Defence Committee visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan with a keen interest to understand what had changed since their last deployment which ended just eight months ago. Even more importantly with the London Conference ahead, I wanted to know what real chance there is of the plan, set out by General McChrystal, welcomed by the allies, and endorsed by President Obama with the commitment of more troops, succeeding. Our visit started in Pakistan with a meeting with their Senate Defence Committee. So much of what will happen in Afghanistan may depend on neighbouring Pakistan and what it continues to do to bring better security to the border area. As we discovered, Pakistani politics is very complex. The tense relationship with India has and does tend to dominate. But there is a growing realisation of the need for, and some, though not enough, action to deal with terrorism and the associated issues of crime and drugs in the border areas. In the run up to the London Conference there has of course been a lot of preparation into the defining what success in Afghanistan can realistically look like and what changes are needed to put fresh momentum into achieving this. A refocused emphasis on protecting the people of Afghanistan, rather than the ‘war on terror’, was foreshadowed in the McChrystal Report. The role of the Afghan people, in army, policing and institutions, through partnering at every level is underway. We visited a camp near Kabul one of several training the 5000 new recruits now being taken on each month. The young men we spoke to came from different parts of the country and seemed clear in their aim of taking responsibility for Afghanistan’s security.
There is much talk too of reconciliation and integration. As those involved in the insurgency come to see that the side they are on is not the one which will prevail, there should be clear routes into the Afghan ‘big tent’ for those who made the wrong call in siding with the ideological Taliban. Reconciliation and reintegration is not yet universally welcomed but the London and Kabul Conferences should provide the context for moving this firmly on to the list of ingredients for a successful recipe for the future of in Afghanistan. In the battle of wills to defeat the insurgency there has to be greater clarity of effort on the part of all involved. The Afghan government, ISAF, NATO and the regional neighbours need to be singing from the same song sheet at strategic, operational and tactical level. Our meetings and briefings at Camp Bastion told a story which resonated with what we heard on our visit to the Provincial Reconstruction Team HQ in Laskahr Gah further south in Helmand and in the office of the District Governor in the town itself.
Afghanistan is an extraordinary country and its people are of strong and resilient character. Thirty years of conflict have not extinguished that. For the allies who came together to form ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) the price of sustained conflict has been controversial in terms of military casualties and the deaths of civilians.
With its substantial defence community there is a good level of understanding in Plymouth of how an unstable Pakistan and Afghanistan relate to our own security. Even so I know there are some who do not see this as a price we should pay. That is not a view I found echoed on our visit, where in the main, seeing things through is the fitting tribute thought appropriate to lost lives and casualties.
Transition to Afghan responsibility will create the context for an eventual drawdown. When this comes it will be welcomed by the Afghans and allies alike.
It seems ironic that those that go under the flag of the Taliban are responsible for killing far more civilians – cynically and deliberately and for the express purpose of the terror they seek to set in train. The media spotlight often seems to let them off lightly in comparison.
The next year is unlikely to see an immediate reduction. There will be ongoing casualties. But with the coherent plans now set in place there is a much better chance that the insurgency will be defeated.
The enemies of the stable Afghanistan, (which we need as much as they) are:
- Weak government and bad Afghan leadership (this needs working on at all levels in a way that is connected)
- Bad international community practices which are not focussed on building the Afghan’s own capacity – big changes are planned which should address this
* Insurgency which encourages extremist leadership wherever it finds a foothold and intimidates people The transition strategy which is now being worked on sets out to address these in a comprehensive, Afghan first and Afghan sensitive way.
The statement by Obama that in committing the extra troops and resources drawdown would commence in 2011 has focussed Afghans on the urgent need to take advantage of the window of time and resources to make a step change in their own capacity to achieve security.
My travel reading was the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It gives real insight into the complex legacy of Afghanistan’s history in the last four decades which led it to become a crucible for terrorism –and why it needs and deserves the allies help to deal with the insurgency and to support the country moving back to a better, stronger place in the life of that region. I came back to UK with a strong sense that success in Afghanistan is like a seesaw hovering, with the potential to tip in the right direction – decisively. Positive outcomes from the upcoming conferences in London and Kabul can help that happen I hope the job 3 Commando Brigade, and the units associated with it, will face in 2011 will be challenging in a different way from the one they found themselves confronted with in 2009. They laid the groundwork to establish security for the work of the Governor of Helmand supported by the PRT which we caught a glimpse of. The work of that provincial reconstruction team is seen as good practice – a model which others are, and will, draw on. Colleagues who visited Laskahr Gah in July 2007 just before Op Herrick VII noted the much reduced security of our visit in January 2010.
If all goes well at the London and Kabul conferences the partnering phase that has been set in train should be well underway by the time 3 Commando Brigade return in 2011.
As the Defence Select Committee moves to conclude its work in this parliament there is no doubt but that Afghanistan will remain high up the agenda of the new committee which will be formed after the forthcoming UK election. I hope that it will find things moving in a right direction of travel for our sake as well as for the people of Afghanistan, which has been a desperately troubled and troubling place for much too long.
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