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| Operation Moshtarak’s Impact in Helmand | |
“Once the spectre of insurgency has been removed, we can move forward very quickly,” he says. “It does not have to take long for the negative effects of insurgency to become clear by their absence.” He’s speaking about a shura or consultative gathering which took place in Patrol Base Habib in an area which was, until very recently, key terrain for the Taliban. With the insurgents displaced, local people were sufficiently confident to attend the shura with the District Governor Mullah Salam and local Afghan police and army commanders and air their concerns about such pressing issues as land tenure and illegal land sales. During the Taliban this would have been unthinkable. “It was an absolutely brilliant shura, it was front-line front-line,” McKie says. “The local population were showing very clearly that they were pro-government.” The positive achievements made in Musa Qaleh – thriving markets, hybrid power generation, improving local governance, education and healthcare – point to what is possible in Marjah in the wake of Operation Moshtarak. Further south in Marjah, in the immediate area of activity for Operation Moshtarak, Johann Jones, an American Stabilisation Advisor from Mississippi deployed by the SU, works in a team of British, Americans and locally employed Afghans working side by side. Jones offers further evidence of what a difference the operation is already making on the ground. He reports the Afghan and coalition military clearing areas with local farmers going out into their fields right behind them and fertilizing or working fields which they had been unable to tend immediately prior to the operation. “The locals just want to work and get back to their daily lives,” Jones says. “They want security and a decent life for their families.” The return of vigorous commercial activity is another key sign of success. “We’ve gone from zero to around 30-plus shops open in the Loy Chareh Bazaar. The Karo Chareh Bazaar, which is even bigger, has now opened and Balakino Bazaar to the southwest reopened, all within the first 11 days after the operation,” Jones reports. Now that the Taliban have been removed, he and his colleagues, both military and civilian, are looking towards the future and planning a series of outreach shuras, visits, cash for works projects, longer term build projects, clean-up work, and capacity development. It’s a familiar pattern across southern Afghanistan whenever and wherever Afghan and coalition partners displace the repressive regime of the Taliban. Protected by the Afghan police, with ISAF providing distanced support, the Chah-e-Anjir market has just opened for the first time in 18 months, selling animals, motorbikes, electrical items, spices, clothing, vegetables and staples like grain and flour. Market days are now extremely popular with several hundred Afghans turning up, including traders and stallholders from Lashkar Gah. The Nad Ali Health Clinic has now been open for three weeks and is providing effective and free healthcare to the community, particularly women and children. The civilian stabilisation concept has been at the heart of Operation Moshtarak from its inception. Built-in flexibility allows rapid reaction and adjustment as the situation changes on the ground. “Daily updates, assessments and the ability to change everything you planned quicker than you typed the plan is a testament to the level of detail in which we all know each and every item,” says Jones. Cooperation between the Afghan and coalition military on the one hand, and civilians on the other is a daily reality. “Both FOBs I've worked at - British and American - so far have been exceptional in their reception towards civilians and their general can-do attitude that makes you proud to be a part of this effort and extremely impressed to see those servicemen and women out here sacrificing every day.” The civilian mentoring provided by the Stabilisation Advisors is a vital precursor to Afghans performing such functions alone in the longer term. “It certainly isn't going to be us who win this thing,” says Jones. “It will be the Afghan people; their education and capacity development as well as building the institutions and companies who will employ those individuals.” The Stabilisation Unit is co-owned by the UK Department for International Development, the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. For more information see the Stabilisation Unit's website. |
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