Nato presses US over Afghanistan

By Tom Coghlan in Kabul
Last Updated: 2:33am BST 22/05/2007

The American government is facing pressure from its Nato allies to limit the use of special forces units in Afghanistan. They have been linked to an increase in civilian deaths during anti-Taliban operations.


Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is believed to have raised the special forces issue with President Bush last night

President Hamid Karzai said earlier this month that public tolerance of Western troops was "wearing thin" after six widely reported instances of civilian deaths since March.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the Nato secretary general, was expected to raise the issue last night at a private dinner at George W Bush's Texas ranch.

All but one of the recent instances of unintended deaths involved US forces operating independently of Nato.

Last June, 15,000 American troops were incorporated into the Nato command structure, but 12,000 troops have remained outside.

Many of these are from secretive anti-terrorist units hunting al-Qa'eda.

"The purpose of extending Nato command across the country (in 2006) was to ensure unity of effort and the proportionate use of force," said one senior Western diplomat in Kabul, who declined to be named.

"We don't have unity of effort. It has taken until now to realise that there are special forces and other agencies acting independently. It doesn't work. You are getting small forces operating outside Nato getting into big fights and making a big mess."

In one instance last month a CIA and US special forces unit was criticised by the Afghan government and human rights organisations for an operation in the western province of Herat that led to the deaths of around 50 civilians and destruction of more than 100 homes by western aircraft.

While acknowledging that the American unit ran into Taliban resistance, one senior Western diplomat said of the operation: "The proportionality of force was not correct." The official said that small special forces units were more likely to require close air support, with a heightened risk of civilian deaths.

Taliban fighters frequently fight from among the civilian population or retreat into civilian areas to escape.

Nato acknowledges that some US units operate outside its control. The US army has a bewildering array of special forces in Afghanistan. As well as Rangers and Green Berets there is Delta Force and Operations Detachment Alpha units that undertake long-term intelligence gathering in tiny self-contained cells.

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"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat its mistakes..."

Maybe if Karzai and NATO stopped making deals with the Taliban and giving them ,the Taliban,Operational Zones,then Maybe these so called extremes would not exist.
Karzai's Brother is a Taliban Sympathizer,making deals on behalf of his brother and then the Brother having to go along to keep peace,lol.
Is Karzai's 50 man SF security Force Extreme?
where is his Afghan Body Guards??
He is not thinking of sending his SF Bodyguards home anytime soon.
Where is the Afghan Military?
Where is the 70,000 man army Karzai Promised?
All this money dumped in to train these people up and they have what a couple thousand men after all this time?
Train 5,000 up and 3,000 run away,lol.
If these countries want us out then let them step up and take control of their own rack holes.

With you all the way Jim. regards ferret

I remember when the USSR invaded Afghanistan and thinking, "rather you than me". I wish that the UK and US had kept out of it and let things be. What the outcome might have been is for conjecture but I douby if it would have been worse.

Yes Acorn this is Sadly true.
Had the UK,US stayed out and just let the Russians go at it and had we not trained these People up with Tactics,Weapons and had we not given them the knowledge of how to fight UNCONVENTIONAL Warfare we would not,possibly,be in the problems we are today with regard to these extremists.
but
We would,most likely, not have weakened the Soviet Union enough to cause collapse,had it not been for their loss to the Afghans,and we would be in a different position in the world under threat from the Soviets.

Which was the better of the two choices?

Even with hind site its a tough call.

Jim,
Although the defeat in Afghanistan contributed to the final demise of the USSR, I don't think it was the catalyst. I also believe that for all it's faults, Afghanistan was better off before the coup which brought the Soviets in than it has been since.

I agree ,Afghanistan and Its people were better off prior to the coup, no doubt.

If we could contaminate the poppy fields (agent orange) it would stop their buying power for new weapon supplies, and bring about a more natural end to the fighting in Afghanistan. And the payment and support for foreign fighters. Just a thought. Also the streets in the US and Europe would be free from an endless supply of the rubbish.

But then the politicians, police officers and government wallies who could help stop the flow would refuse such a suggestion, because it would deprive them of their daily supplies of their recreational drug supplies. regards ferret

The US has ,supposedly, sprayed defoliant,but the strangest thing,Afghan Poppy plants grow more under defoliant,lol,lol.
(over 400,000 acres,almost double what it was last year)

Apropos Feret's point on the poppy crop and its consequences...


Smash our trade in opium, Afghans tell British

By Tom Coghlan in Kabul
Last Updated: 4:09am BST 26/05/2007



Afghan farmers work in an opium poppy field in the eastern province of Ningarhar

The Afghan government has demanded that British troops destroy the opium trade in the country after a record poppy harvest that threatens to flood Europe with cheap, high-purity heroin.

Officials are so concerned that they want the British to abandon their policy of non-intervention in the drugs war.

Counter-narcotics officials argue that the insurgency faced by the British in southern Afghanistan and the trade that centres on the province of Helmand are now indistinguishable and must be dealt with as such.

Figures for this year's opium harvest show that Helmand is producing more than half of the world's heroin, even with British troops present, and that production has soared by 30 per cent in a year to a record 6,100 tons.

"The drug dealers, the Taliban and the warlords are the same network," said Gen Khodaidad, Afghanistan's deputy minister of counter-narcotics.

"Nato should destroy these people. They should hit their headquarters, their convoys, the drugs labs and factories.

"Drugs are the main source of income for the Taliban."

British troops have studiously avoided involvement in the issue, arguing that they cannot afford to risk alienating public support in the province, where the Taliban seek to present themselves as the defenders of poppy farmers. In line with stated Nato policy, they offer support to the counter-narcotics policies of the Afghan government.

Britain is the lead partner working with the Afghans on drugs policy, but the support is provided by experts from the Foreign Office rather than the Army.

"Helmand is out of control," said one Western official.

"This may be the place where the military has to get involved. There is an increasing relationship between the Taliban and the drugs trade. Drugs feed corruption and a lack of governance. Any security is an illusion unless the drugs issue is tackled."

The Taliban are estimated to earn tens of millions of dollars by charging a tithe for protecting poppy fields, where farmers benefited this year from good weather and corruption among officials.

Officials in Kabul were incensed when British psychological operations teams put out radio broadcasts in April that announced that British soldiers would not destroy poppy crops because they knew people had a livelihood to earn.

A senior Western diplomat in Kabul said: "Nato is adamant that it will not become a poppy eradication force, but there is a need for them to provide much more active support on interdiction and trafficking, even security for (Afghan) eradication teams."

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"Those who forget the past are condemned to repeat its mistakes..."