They Can Clear, But Can They "Hold and Build?"
By PATRICK COCKBURN
CounterPunch
"....Billed as the largest military operation by Western forces since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, the offensive is partially aimed at the US and foreign media, which is present in force, in order to show US and Afghan forces succeeding in taking back territory from the Taliban...
The US commanders are underlining the role of Afghan troops in the present offensive against Marjah in a bid to avoid Afghans seeing it purely as an operation by foreign troops. The US wants to show to the outside government that foreign forces are in Afghanistan in support of an indigenous government and not as part of an ever-deepening foreign occupation. It is not clear, however, how far this is window dressing during a military action which is being heavily covered by foreign media and how far Afghan military involvement can or will be replicated in future offensives.
An underlying problem for President Obama’s plan for a rapid increase in US troop levels to be followed by their reduction in 2011 is that the Taliban could just wait for this to happen. A further difficulty is that success depends on building up the Afghan state and its armed forces at high speed though the experience of the last eight years shows that this cannot be done. Afghan army recruits are often too malnourished to be able to carry the weight of the body armour which American forces wear....."
By PATRICK COCKBURN
CounterPunch
"....Billed as the largest military operation by Western forces since the overthrow of the Taliban in 2001, the offensive is partially aimed at the US and foreign media, which is present in force, in order to show US and Afghan forces succeeding in taking back territory from the Taliban...
The US commanders are underlining the role of Afghan troops in the present offensive against Marjah in a bid to avoid Afghans seeing it purely as an operation by foreign troops. The US wants to show to the outside government that foreign forces are in Afghanistan in support of an indigenous government and not as part of an ever-deepening foreign occupation. It is not clear, however, how far this is window dressing during a military action which is being heavily covered by foreign media and how far Afghan military involvement can or will be replicated in future offensives.
An underlying problem for President Obama’s plan for a rapid increase in US troop levels to be followed by their reduction in 2011 is that the Taliban could just wait for this to happen. A further difficulty is that success depends on building up the Afghan state and its armed forces at high speed though the experience of the last eight years shows that this cannot be done. Afghan army recruits are often too malnourished to be able to carry the weight of the body armour which American forces wear....."
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