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Redirection afghanistan { November 20 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12295-2002Nov19.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12295-2002Nov19.html
Pentagon Plans A Redirection In Afghanistan
Troops to Be Shifted Into Rebuilding Country
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 20, 2002; Page A01
In a major restructuring of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, the Pentagon plans to disperse teams of combat soldiers, civil affairs specialists and Afghan troops around the nation to help secure the countryside and boost reconstruction efforts, defense officials said yesterday.
The initiative marks an expanded U.S. military commitment to assisting in the rebuilding of Afghanistan. It also represents a tacit admission that concerns about security continue to inhibit reconstruction efforts and will require the United States to do more apart from trying to hunt down remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda.
For an administration that came into office deriding the use of U.S. military forces for "nation-building," the new emphasis on reconstruction in Afghanistan constitutes a significant shift.
For months U.S. military officials have resisted a policing role for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, placing their hopes instead on development of a national Afghan army. But the process of recruiting and training the army is proceeding slowly, with just over 1,000 soldiers organized so far, and most areas outside Kabul, the capital, continue to be controlled by regional chieftains who were armed by the United States during the Afghan war but are resisting the authority of the U.S.-backed central government.
Another possible security option -- expanding the International Security Assistance Force beyond Kabul -- has run into difficulty over the reluctance of other countries to contribute more troops, U.S. officials said.
Senior Pentagon officials have indicated in recent weeks that a shift in strategy was being contemplated. Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a speech earlier this month that it may be time for the military to "flip" its priorities from combat operations to "the reconstruction piece in Afghanistan."
Under the plan, which is being welcomed by Afghan and U.N. authorities who have urged more U.S. peacekeeping assistance, military groups consisting of several dozen members each will move to such population centers as Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan and Herat in western Afghanistan, setting up bases from which aid projects can be launched. The exact numbers of troops involved and the locations of the camps have yet to be finalized, defense officials said.
"Frankly, I don't think the number is the relevant thing," one senior official said. "It's making sure the concept is well-thought through and works. If you start in a few places and it works well, then you can expand it."
U.S. forces have increasingly taken on humanitarian and reconstruction tasks such as school building and wells in Afghanistan in recent months. The decision to deploy U.S. forces to regional centers to boost the reconstruction effort effectively formalizes this largely unheralded change in policy.
Pentagon authorities expect that the initiative will require only a relatively modest increase in the U.S. troop level in Afghanistan, with about 200 civil affairs specialists due to join the 7,000 American troops there.
According to Pentagon estimates, 75 to 90 percent of Afghanistan is sufficiently free of terrorist activity to permit more intensive rebuilding of roads, schools, hospitals and other facilities. The exceptions are areas in the southeast along the border with Pakistan and in the south near Kandahar.
"In most of the country, with the exception of these areas, we are increasingly finding that there is not a lot of strictly military work to be done in terms of stabilization, and even the humanitarian stuff is moving more into the direction of building schools and hospitals rather than dealing with immediate starvation," the senior official said. "So we are looking at how to reconfigure ourselves" and "start shifting the balance of what we're doing much more heavily in the direction of civil affairs and reconstruction work."
The move to establish the new military camps would appear to reflect a Pentagon judgment that no substantial growth in the international peacekeeping force is likely, although Pentagon officials say they are leaving open the prospect that some international peacekeepers may participate in the camps. The plan does foresee incorporating members of the new Afghan army, but whether they will be deployed in larger groups the size of battalions -- about 500 troops -- or in smaller company-sized units of about 150 are among the details yet to be worked out, officials said.
While the primary focus of U.S. troops in Afghanistan has been searching for fugitive members of the al Qaeda network and the Taliban militia that sheltered it before they were ousted by U.S. forces a year ago, American soldiers have been involved in some small-scale reconstruction efforts. The Pentagon cites 225 such projects over the past year, including schools, medical facilities, roads, and irrigation.
"That's the sort of activity that we think could be stepped up and contribute substantially to stability in those parts of the country where we no longer have to worry too much about Taliban or al Qaeda," the senior official said.
Pentagon officials say they remain reluctant to employ troops in extended peacekeeping missions, but they describe the Afghanistan plan as significantly different from earlier efforts in the Balkans and Haiti.
"Since September 11, I think everyone understands that we have a stake in the future of Afghanistan that is not simply nation-building for the sake of the Afghan people, it's security-building to prevent terrorists from returning," the senior official said. "That's not a mission we ever thought about before for the United States.
"But no one should dream that we're going to put 50,000 people in each province to make sure that there's law and order," the official added. "That has got to somehow work by an Afghan process or it won't work at all. We're not there to police disputes among Afghans. We are there to make the provision of essential reconstruction and civil services more secure."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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