The Example of Musa Qala -- Counter Insurgency: The Right Way And the Wrong Way

Corporal Vanessa Larter and Corporal Shaun Lindsay are administrating medical care to a young Afghan girl, which took place during a Village Medical Outreach (VMO). The girl will require surgery later on and it will be performed at Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team (KPRT).

From The Captain's Journal:

We have previously covered the secret negotiations between MI6 agents and mid-level Taliban commanders, the result of which was the agreement between British forces and one Mullah Abdul Salaam who had promised military help when British and U.S. forces retook Musa Qala late in 2007. The military assistance never materialized, and instead of engaging in the battle, Salaam and his “fighters” stayed in his compound in Shakahraz, ten miles east, with a small cortège of fighters, where he made increasingly desperate pleas for help. “He said that he would bring all the tribes with him but they never materialised,” recalled one British officer at the forefront of the operation. “Instead, all that happened was a series of increasingly fraught and frantic calls from him for help to Karzai.”

For this he was rewarded with rule of Musa Qala. But not more than half a year later relations between Salaam and the British have badly degraded. The British have accused him of corruption and thuggery, while he has accused the British of undermining his “authority.” Salaam is “feathering his own nest” while reconstruction is not forthcoming.

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We have already pointed out that the British grunts are among the bravest on earth, but the problems here are associated with strategy and force projection. The campaign didn’t begin well in Musa Qala, with the British appointing by fiat a man who had neither moral authority nor personal investment in the area. The situation has degraded since then.

Musa Qala is a thorny set of problems, but this could also have been said of the Anbar Province. But the U.S. Marines had continual force projection for a protracted period of time, and when kinetic operations needed to be mixed with biometrics and gated communities, this transition was instantaneous. Then when Lt. Colonels had to be at city council meetings, they participated as warrior-scholars.

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My Comment: The Captain's Journal's closing remarks hit it on the money. This is why the U.S. succeeded in Anbar, Iraq, and this is what we must do to succeed in Afghanistan.

The U.S. Marines have had significant success in the Garmser area of operations in the Helmand Province, but the 24th MEU will be rotating out soon. Whether the replacements are U.S. Marines or British forces, the strategy must be one of being the most powerful tribe in Helmand. Only then can a society be [re]constructed so that forces can turn over to legitimate governmental authorities and stand down. It is a proven paradigm, and without it, we will fail in Afghanistan.

There is no magic to perform, no secret Gnostic words to utter, no tricks. Troops are necessary, and warrior-scholars who can fight a battle as well as govern a city council meeting. Under-resourced forces and shady deals with corrupt, second rate, has-been Taliban commanders (or religiously motivated hard core Taliban commanders) simply won’t do the job.

But while we now know what we must do to win, I do not have confidence that the British will do it right. They lack the resources, the political will, and the proper intelligence to win over the civilian populations in their jurisdiction. They failed in Basra, Iraq, ..... and they are failing here.