Interesting Talk about Afghanistan

I got to listen to a talk this morning given by Lt. Colonel Jody Nelson, Commander or the 4th Brigade, Special Troops Battalion in Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. It was an extremely interesting talk, and I think some of you might find these comments insightful. This is all from memory so pardon some minor alteration on my part – it’s accidental. She was surprisingly blunt and honest.

On situation:

• The primary tasks are three-fold: Reduce corruption, provide security and infrastructure, and kill the insurgents.
• On Corruption: She estimates 95%-100% of all government officials are corrupt. She has been tasked to reduce this and says it is basically impossible.
• On security: It has gotten worse lately. They have absolutely no way to identify Taliban from common Afghans and rely exclusively on afghan security and information networks for information in this regard. Extremely difficult. She had to work briefly with the man who led Bin Laden to Tora Bora, and who dined every day with Taliban members. She was less than pleased.
• On infrastructure: She is allotted about 8 grand every three months for projects. In the past, the Americans would decide how to allocate the money, but this was a mistake. She now relies on the Afghans to tell her what they need/want. This way she can stop being blamed for everything – in her words, “You want to govern? Then govern!”
• On insurgents: They pay very well. The Taliban does not plant IEDs, they bribe civilians who are desperate for money. There is no job network, no economy…
• Her general thought at the moment is that the army is being asked to do something it was never trained to do. She is routinely surprised however, at how well the tasks are accomplished. She has 18 and 20 year olds discussing governance with town elders. Her takeaway was that a lot of mistakes had been made, but that the situation was improving slowly.

Random bits:

• Poppy is a real problem. The American troops have been told (recently, I gather) NOT to eradicate poppy crops (which is basically impossible anyhow). The Taliban pays up front for poppy production, whereas the village incentive (money) not to plant poppy is only after harvest, and then is severely reduced by corruption. Consequently, poppy is still very popular.
• US forces tried to encourage potato and grain production which failed miserably. The climate is not well acclimated, and there is no food processing facility anywhere in the country. Food not eaten is sent to Pakistan for processing at severely reduced prices and then sold back at ten times the cost.
• She has built schools, repaired a lot of mosques (they do not build them), dug wells, and provided rug-based job programs to try and stimulate the economy. She employs about 900 afghans at 3 dollars/day to try and rebuild the infrastructure.
• There is no electricity, so she is constantly asked to help with or provide solar panels.
• Afghans steal gas from US troops.
• Schools are in high demand, but the cost is usually estimated at about $400k per school. When she refused to provide that money and demanded they hire and contract locally, the price dropped to $100k.
• Schools require walls around them or else young girls will not go.
• Her troops are approximately 10% female. She mentioned that a lot of the “glass ceiling” for women in the army is still there, but she rolls with it.
• Patrols run into IEDs all the time. She has been through four already.

Summary:

She was asked what she thinks the outcome would be if US troops left:

She says that those who have made money off this venture in the country will leave immediately, and order would collapse. The Taliban would swiftly move in.

Rather depressing, and lends a lot of credence to the “100 years of occupation” idea. It's a lousy situation for the army to be in, and you really feel bad for what these troops are being asked to try and accomplish. Anyhow, she said a lot of other stuff and if you have questions I’ll try to answer based off what I heard.