Human Terrain Team Member Killed in Afghanistan (SWJ Blog)
Michael… helped the brigade reduce its lethal operations by
60 to 70%, increase the number of districts supporting the Afghan
government from 15 to 83, and reduce Afghan civilian deaths from over
70 during the previous brigade’s tour to 11 during the 4-82’s tour.
My thoughts and best wishes are with Michael Bhatia’s family. His work was exceptional, and he should be remembered with pride.
The Boston Globe has a good editorial that addresses both sides of the Afghani poppy problem. In case you didn’t know, Afghanistan’s number one export is heroin. Dirt-poor farmers grow the poppies from seeds they bought on loan from the drug lords. If we kill the poppy, the heroin traders start breaking legs. If we don’t, the poppy gets traded and the farmer and his family get to scratch out another day- and the behavior is reinforced. Another alternative is legalizing the export of heroin for medicinal purposes- but with druggie demand (and hence the price they’re willing to pay) drastically outstripping legitimate users’ needs, it would be like trying to empty the Atlantic with a beach bucket.
How big an industry is this? According to a 2004 UN report, Afghanistan produces some 87% of the world’s heroin. That’s a lot of drugs. In fact, some estimates say that with Afghani production, supply of heroin outstrips known market demand by 30%.
So if we burn the poppy, the farmers get hurt and hate us. If we legalize the poppy, they sell it to both markets and make more money from the illegal ones. What’s a nation-building nation to do?
Well, we’re not standing still. In fact, we’re trying all sorts of things to stop the growth. The DEA is deploying agents, analysts and trainers both to grab the heroin themselves and train the Afghani “National Interdiction Unit.” They’ve been there since 2004, though, and the amount of heroin exported is still going up. What’s going on?
It probably doesn’t help that Afghanistan’s anti-corruption chief was once a Las Vegas heroin dealer. Just a thought.
Provincial Reconstruction Teams are where the money is. Well, maybe not the money, but definitely the goodwill and trust of the people we’re trying to protect and make prosper. “Habitat for Humanity, ‘cept you get shot at,” one commenter had it. These teams have the scary, amazing and incredibly important mission of rebuilding infrastructure and providing a helping hand to locals. The shoutout to an Air Force Captain was especially exciting. I hope that my classmates, the ones majoring in Civil Engineering or some other equally arcane yet utterly necessary field, are out there within the next few years, leading these teams.
Even among those of us supportive of the effort over in the sandbox, talk about how what we need to do is “connect to the people,” get into their hearts and minds- and how badly we’re failing- is quite heavy. These men and women are out there getting their hands dirty, which is amazing. Here’s hoping their story gets a little more press and that they can get the support they need to continue this important mission.
So this isn’t dreadfully important- but it IS dreadfully funny. I chortle inside every time I imagine Mahmood explaining this to his imam. “It gets surprisingly good ventilation…”
Thanks, Defense Tech!
It’s one of the dangers of fighting an asymmetrical war. Since Sunday there have been two incidents of civilians being caught in American troops’ crossfire. After a suicide bombing, several troops in an American convoy opened fire at civilian vehicles on the street, which led to protests from Afghan men removing the wounded (from the bombing and possible subsequent insurgent fire, not the Americans). The convoy’s reaction is understandable, but when you can’t differentiate enemy from friend (as is the case in both of our counterinsurgencies), maybe a different strategy is needed.
This is highlighted with the Afghan civilians killed because two insurgents who fired a rocket at US forces took refuge within the same housing compound. Afghan families often share homes with one outer structure and several interior rooms. These insurgents fled to the house, which was quickly struck by two bombs from coalition fighters. Approximately ten civilians were killed and it’s not sure if the bad guys were among them.
Again, understandable reaction, but very damaging to our political capital. With the Taliban holding two provinces in southern Afghanistan and expecting a record opium crop this season, can we afford to alienate the people?
Death toll is down almost 50% according to Bill Roggio from the Weekly Standard. Other good news abounds as well: Several significant insurgent captures were made and Iran may be coming to the table at an Iraq-hosted “regional summit.”
On the down side, current theory from National Intelligence is that Iranian leaders probably knew that the newest threat to our troops, Explosively Formed Penetrators (more on these later) were being supplied to Iraqi insurgents.