U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates last week complained some NATO forces were not properly trained in counter-insurgency. While he quickly downplayed his criticism, the implication was clear; U.S. troops do it better.
THE ENEMY NOT THE OBJECTIVE
In Afghanistan, humanitarian workers have for years called on international forces to bring security so they could provide aid and development work.
The trouble is that there are not enough foreign or Afghan troops to hold all the ground, so security has been weak, which has meant aid has been largely absent from many remote areas and resentment at the slow pace of change and official corruption has strengthened the Taliban insurgency.
To break the vicious circle, the U.S. strategy is to turn the problem on its head and make development the objective, trusting that security will follow.
"The enemy is in our way, but he's an obstacle, not an objective. He's no longer the focus of our activity," said Woods.
Sakyan elders complained they had been caught in the middle of Taliban rebels and corrupt local police who extorted money at gunpoint or by threatening to hand villagers over to U.S. troops who they said would ship them off to jail in Guantanamo Bay.
The locally recruited police have now been sent away for retraining and replaced with officers from elsewhere. Smaller units of U.S. troops have set up bases in towns and villages across Paktia and the east.
Afghan army units now lead all operations and district governors are getting out of their fortified compounds, meeting elders and hearing their demands. But are they under orders not to make promises they cannot keep.
By spring, when Taliban fighters return from their suspected hideouts in nearby Pakistan, Afghan and U.S. troops hope to have won over the people enough for the insurgents not to find support.
"We understand it is the people who are the centre of gravity," said Woods.
