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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Snowshoe who wrote (48421)	10/1/2002 2:39:17 AM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Snowshoe; A good article. This is how we win hearts and minds, not by dropping bombs from airplanes at high altitude. Some quotes: The U.S. military campaign against al Qaeda and Taliban remnants is undergoing a subtle but important shift, relying less on air and ground assaults and more on digging wells, school construction and "stability operations," according to American officials and Western diplomats. The largely unheralded changes follow complaints by Afghan government officials, aid workers, allied diplomats, CIA personnel and some members of the U.S. Special Forces that heavy-handed U.S. military tactics and civilian casualties have alienated some Afghans who might otherwise be recruited to the anti-terrorist cause. ... Despite the potential for a new insurgency led by Hekmatyar, officials in Karzai's government are increasingly of the view that the Americans have vanquished their enemy and should turn more attention to rebuilding a country shattered by 23 years of war. Moreover, they say, the tactics of U.S. forces cause needless friction with ordinary Afghans, especially because the Americans rarely coordinate their missions with local authorities. ... Both in Washington and at the sprawling base at Bagram, where contractors are busy outfitting tents with heaters and plywood siding for the long winter ahead, commanders have been examining their approach to Afghanistan for about three months, according to U.S. military sources. That review was spurred in part by the accidental attack on a wedding party in Uruzgan province in July, as well as by continuing pleas from Western embassies and the CIA for the U.S. military to do more to promote stability and less to antagonize the local population, say people familiar with the internal discussions. "There was too much of a critical mass of reporting in agency channels, in State Department channels, that this was getting counterproductive," one of those people said. There also has been tension between the Special Forces troops in the countryside and the regular, more strait-laced military -- led by the 82nd Airborne -- at Bagram and elsewhere. Special Forces officers say privately that the regular Army has been prone to displays of strength that sometimes alienate locals at the expense of the overall mission. Some of the more relaxed Special Forces troops, who sometimes act like a lethal version of the Peace Corps, also were antagonized by a recent order from Bagram to shave their beards and wear at least a semblance of a U.S. military uniform, instead of a combination of camping gear and Afghan tribal garb. ... "What we're trying to do is assist in winning over hearts and minds," said Col. George P. Maugh, who commands the civil-military task force from a fortified residential compound in Kabul. "There are still some areas we have to be careful in, but from everything I've seen, it's getting easier for us to operate." washingtonpost.com This is a great relief to me, as that wedding party had me worried. -- Carl