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Residents of Kandahar hear echoes of Baghdad
kandahar from A1
Pashtun. There are divisions among tribes and clans, but they are not a reliable indicator of sup- port for the Taliban. And many residents regard U.S. forces as the cause of the growing instability, rather than the solution to it. Military officials hope the measures will nonetheless make it more difficult for the Taliban to transport munitions into the city and to attack key government buildings. The use of biometric scans will allow soldiers at check- points to apprehend anyone whose fingerprints are in a data- base of suspected insurgents. “Just because Afghanistan is
different from Iraq, it doesn’t mean you can’t use techniques that worked well there,” Hodges said.
Another tactic employed in Iraq and soon to be copied in Kanda- har involves major outlays from a discretionary fund that com- manders can use to pay for quick- turnaround reconstruction proj- ects. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the former top commander in Iraq who recently took charge of the U.S. and NATO mission in Afghan- istan, called such money “a weap- on system.” Defense Secretary Robert M.
Gates recently approved a propos- al from Petraeus to spend $227 million from the fund — the larg- est-ever single expenditure — to pay for new generators and mil- lions of gallons of diesel to in- crease the electricity supply in Kandahar. Petraeus and other top military officers in Afghanistan have supported the costly effort because they think the provision of more power will lead residents to view their government more fa- vorably, which is a key element of the counterinsurgency campaign. But some U.S. civilian officials in the country question whether the increase in power, which will be directed toward businesses, will win over residents. The offi- cials maintain that the United States will have to keep shelling out millions of dollars a month for diesel or risk further wrath from Kandaharis because a hoped-for hydroelectric project intended to replace the generators will take years to complete.
Green Zone revisited? Contractors working for the
NATO regional command already have installed 7,000 concrete slabs — each eight feet wide — around the governor’s palace and the mayor’s office, along major roads and in front of police stations. De- mand for the walls are so high that several manufacturing sites have sprung up on the highway heading toward the airport. Although military officials say their informal surveys of residents show significant support for walls and checkpoints, local leaders have expressed unease. Kanda- har’s governor, Tooryalai Wesa, told Hodges that he does not want parts of the city to turn into an Iraq-like Green Zone.
Although municipal workers
have registered about 20,000 resi- dents into the biometric database and provided them with plastic identification cards, Afghan Presi- dent Hamid Karzai put the regis- tration on hold last week because of concerns over privacy rights, military officials said. There are other grievances. Res- idents near checkpoints say elec- tronic jamming equipment used by soldiers to prevent remote- controlled bombs interferes with their mobile phones. Shopkeepers say they are losing business. “Since they put the cement walls up, security is better, but no- body is coming to our shops,” an elderly man named Rafiullah told Hodges as he visited his small stall filled with sundries next to a checkpoint on the western border. Hodges promised to “figure out
a solution.” But removing any of them involves a trade-off in pro- tection for the forces in the city. Last month, three U.S. soldiers and four Afghan interpreters were killed when two suicide bombers stormed a police headquarters building that had not yet been ful- ly encircled with concrete walls. Hodges said the checkpoints
have forced insurgents to find al- ternate routes into the city, either through the desert or on dirt paths, which limit what they can transport and how quickly they can move. “Will we stop everyone? No,” he said. “But it is having an ef- fect. The enemy is having to change their movements.” The Taliban are also seeking to
TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2010
RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN/THE WASHINGTON POST Tall concrete blast walls are increasingly being used for security reasons in Kandahar, just as they were in Baghdad.
place new obstacles for U.S. and Afghan forces. In the Arghandab district north of Kandahar, where U.S. soldiers from the 101st Air- borne Division are seeking to clear out pockets of Taliban fight- ers, the insurgents have seeded pomegranate groves and vine- yards with homemade anti-per- sonnel mines; several soldiers have been maimed by them over the past two weeks. Commanders are wrestling with the option of razing some fields to remove the bombs, which would eliminate many farmers’ livelihoods, or as- sume more risk by leaving the crops untouched. “Counterinsurgency doctrine
says you don’t turn the population against you,” a U.S. officer in the area said. “But at how much of a cost does that make sense?”
Wayward cousins
Perhaps the most important reason population control worked to the extent it did in Baghdad was because each side believed
the other posed an existential threat, and both turned to the United States for security. In many parts of southern and eastern Af- ghanistan, the population has yet to seek protection. Many Kandaharis regard the
Taliban as wayward brothers and cousins — fellow Pashtuns with whom they can negotiate and one day reconcile. They also worry about siding with their govern- ment because they fear Taliban retribution, both now and when U.S. troop reductions begin next summer.
But the U.S. counterinsurgency
strategy depends on persuading Pashtuns to get off the fence and cast their lot with their govern- ment. The U.S. military and civil- ian agencies are trying to help the government win over the public by delivering services to the popu- lation that the Taliban does not of- fer, including education, health care, agricultural assistance and justice based on the rule of law. That requires capable civil ser-
vants willing to work in an unsta- ble environment — and that’s where the strategy is hitting its most significant roadblock. A recent effort by Karzai’s local-
TOMORROWIS...
governance directorate to fill 300 civil service jobs in Kandahar and the surrounding district turned up four qualified applicants, even after the agency dropped its appli- cation standards to remove a high school diploma, according to sev- eral U.S. officials. The main impediment is securi-
ty. Afghans don’t want to work for their government or U.S. devel- opment contractors in such an un- safe environment. But if the gov- ernment and contractors cannot employ qualified workers, the gov- ernment cannot deliver services and will be unable to win the population’s allegiance, a prereq- uisite for improved security. To crack that loop, U.S. officials
Days
are exploring ways to protect Af- ghans working for the govern- ment. One plan under consider- ation would involve transforming the Kandahar Hotel into a secure dormitory surrounded by con- crete walls, for civil servants. De- velopment contractors working for USAID are building com- pounds with secret entrances to minimize the chances that in- surgents spot staff members. Getting government officials in place is no guarantee of success. Kandahar’s governor and mayor are regarded as ineffective admin- istrators, but U.S. and Canadian advisers are trying to transform them into more competent lead- ers. In the Panjwai district to the west of Kandahar, U.S. officials say, the district governor and the police chief recently got into a fight. The chief hit the governor with a teakettle and the governor smashed a teacup on the chief’s head, the confrontation culminat- ing in a shootout between their guards. In Arghandab, U.S. military and civilian officials spent a year working closely with — and prais- ing — the district governor, Abdul Jabar. When he was killed in a car bombing in Kandahar this sum- mer, the officials blamed the Tali- ban.
Pack 24
But some of those same officials concluded that the governor was skimming U.S. funds for recon- struction projects in his district. His killing, they think, was the re- sult of anger by fellow residents over his not distributing the spoils, not a Taliban assassination. “It was a mob hit,” said one U.S.
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official familiar with the situation. “We saw him as a white knight, but we were getting played the whole time.”
chandrasek@washpost.com
President Obama began a month-long effort Monday to re- mind an American electorate fa- tigued by war that the U.S. mili- tary effort in Iraq is about to enter its end game. In a speech to the Disabled American Veterans national con- vention in Atlanta, the president said that beginning next month, the more than seven-year-old conflict will change from a pri- marily military enterprise to a diplomatic one.
Obama campaigned on wind- ing down the Iraq war, and he used his remarks to veterans, a significant portion of whom did not support him in the election, to remind voters that he is carry- ing out those plans largely on schedule. “The hard truth is we have not seen the end of American sacri- fice in Iraq,” the president told the group, which received his speech politely and with occa- sional applause. “But make no mistake: Our commitment in Iraq is changing — from a military ef- fort led by our troops to a civilian effort led by our diplomats.” White House officials said Oba-
ma’s speech will be followed in the weeks ahead by remarks from Vice President Biden and other senior administration officials about the drawdown. Although Obama opposed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, his administra- tion says his management of the war represents one of his most important foreign policy success- es.
The U.S. combat mission in
Iraq will officially conclude at the end of the month, a milestone that comes after a steady troop pullout since Obama took office. About 50,000 U.S. forces are scheduled to remain in Iraq after the combat mission is done. That means that by the end of August, about 94,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines will have left Iraq since Obama’s inauguration. The departure timetable — originally negotiated with the Iraqi government by the George W. Bush administration — calls for all U.S. troops to leave by the end of next year. But Iraq remains a fragile na- tion, and its political leadership has warned of a potential power vacuum as U.S. forces withdraw. Iraqi politicians have not agreed on a new coalition govern- ment nearly five months after na- tional elections, and periodic at- tacks against fledgling Iraqi insti- tutions and troops remain a threat to security. “Obviously, we’re doing what we can to help facilitate them along,” White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton told report- ers traveling with the president. “But when you consider that last time it took them six months to
on
washingtonpost.com Analyzing the wars
Follow a photo timeline of the war in Afghanistan;
watch Obama’s speech.
washingtonpost.com/nation
Obama reminds veterans he’s beginning war’s end
U.S. focus in Iraq will change from combat operations to exit plan
by Scott Wilson and Aaron Blake
put together the government, the fact that there’s a stable transi- tional government in place right now is a sign that this process is working.” White House officials billed
Obama’s remarks to the veterans group as a significant Iraq policy address, but a relatively small part of the roughly 20-minute speech was devoted to the sub- ject. The president spoke most passionately about veterans ben- efits and received the most ap- plause when he did. When he talked about Iraq, Obama stressed that he is over- seeing the successful end of the war, even as he builds up the com- bat capability of U.S. troops in Af- ghanistan. He said the remaining U.S. forces in Iraq will focus on train- ing Iraqi troops while U.S. diplo- mats work with Iraqi leaders on political and governance issues. Already an intensive effort is un- derway to move millions of pieces of military equipment out of Iraq, a process Obama called “one of the largest logistics operations that we’ve seen in decades.” Iraq has been a deeply unpopu- lar war among the Democratic base, and Obama’s commitment to continue with the withdrawal could help excite party voters this fall. But he went against his party last year in escalating the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan, a surge of about 30,000 troops that he intends to begin bringing home next summer. The president warned the audi-
ence Monday that “we will con- tinue to face huge challenges in Afghanistan.” “But it’s important that the American people know that we are making progress and we are focused on goals that are clear and achievable,” he added. Although Obama acknowl-
edged that “our nation has had vigorous debates” about the Iraq war, he said the time has come to support the more than 1 million U.S. troops who have served there. He promised to speed up benefits to veterans and improve care for a wide range of combat- related injuries, including post- traumatic stress disorder. “I want to say to anyone who is
struggling: Do not suffer in si- lence,” he said. “It’s not a sign of weakness to reach out for sup- port; it is a sign of strength. Your country needs you. And we are here to help you stand tall again.” Leighton Foreman, a retired
Marine master sergeant who served in Afghanistan, said after the speech that “we’ll always have a hand in Iraq, I’m sure.” “We definitely should be part- ners, as you are in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, as we helped them in the past,” he said. “But Afghani- stan definitely needs to be ad- dressed. It’s not getting any easi- er.” Joe Borbas, a retired Army staff
sergeant who served in Vietnam, said Obama should have devoted more of his speech to Afghani- stan, a war now in its ninth year that polls find most Americans do not believe is worth fighting. “I do agree our time has come
[in Iraq], but what’s being un- derplayed is Afghanistan,” Borbas said. “That’s the next big one. It could be messy. I think it got un- derplayed a little bit.”
wilsons@washpost.com blakea@washpost.com
Blake reported from Atlanta.
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