I Am Not Encouraged

The transition from deliberate combat operations to creating security for the often lackluster Afghan government [is] under way. A set of tasks more complex than fighting [is] ahead: encouraging the population of Marja to accept, much less support, an outside government presence.

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Less than a year ago, much of the area was wholly outside of Afghan government influence. Helmand was Taliban turf. Today the troop number is still rising. The Marine Corps says nearly 20,000 Marines will be here before the year’s end.

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Afghans in the meeting with the colonels were blunt. “They said: ‘We’re with you. We want to help you build. We will support you. But if you bring in the cops, we will fight you till death,’ ” Colonel Newman said.

The plan is to bring in the cops; already they are arriving at American-built outposts.

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“We have a fleeting opportunity to earn limited trust,” said Col. Randall P. Newman, who commands the Marine ground forces in Helmand Province, in an interview. He summed up the state of relations now: “They don’t trust us.”

  NYT

Imagine that.

The Afghan soldiers who accompanied Company C, [their Capt. Stephan P. Karabin] said, had looted the 84-booth Semitay Bazaar immediately after the Marines swept through and secured it. Then the Afghan soldiers refused to stand post in defensive bunkers, or to fill sandbags as the Americans, sometimes under fire, hardened their joint outpost. Instead, they spent much of their time walking in the bazaar, smoking hashish.

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Captain Karabin had paid aggrieved shop owners $300 to $500 each for their losses to the Afghan Army’s looting.

And these are the guys that are supposed to be standing up so we can stand down.

The fight to oust the Taliban has been billed as a major test of the Afghan army's state of readiness to assume the lead role in providing security for the nation.

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The project goes by the acronym TLSR: Transition of Leading Security Responsibility.

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During the height of the fighting, on the third day of the offensive, the Marines and Afghans were engaged in 36 sustained firefights with Taliban fighters. Though Afghan troops showed a willingness to fight, their effectiveness was questionable, Marines said.

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"They did well for where they are in the development of their army," said Col. Randy Newman, commander of the 7th Marine Regiment. "They were never shy about making contact. Sometimes we had to restrain them."

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Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, the top Marine here, said that overall the Afghan battalions exceeded his expectations. Nicholson said he would give some Afghan units an A-minus or B-plus but that others, particularly those with soldiers fresh from basic training, would get a C-minus or D.

  LA Times

No F's? Considering the looting and refusal to work, I'd say Gen. Nicholson is what we would call an easy grader. Brings to mind a professor I once had in a college chemistry seminar who, at the end of the term, told the assembly of freshmen, "We're going to grade this class on a curve so that somebody in here will pass."

Whitman, who is preparing a detailed review of the Afghans' performance, said he saw something on the eve of the assault that led him to be particularly encouraged. While Ghoori was delivering a pep talk to his soldiers, many of them pulled small Afghan flags out of their pockets and began waving them, Whitman said.

Oh, yeah. That encourages me.

I have one question: Given that 20,000 troops are expected to be in Helmand province by the end of the year, and given that 15,000 British and American soldiers are participating in the Marja offensive, and given that Kandahar, in another province and which has been announced as next in line, is ten times the size of Marja, when will Obama announce the next additional troop surge?

"Colonel Randy Newman."