The Protecting Civilians Myth Posted by Michael Cohen

First things first. I have broken down and finally gone on Twitter surrendering to the forces of digital overload. My handle is speechboy71 (surprisingly most variations of Michael Cohen were taken). Please follow me because right now I have 21 followers and that is kind of pathetic - that and I'm intensely curious to know who all the DA readers are out there. Ok, on to the news.

Fascinating read in today's Wall Street Journal about how US troops feel about the counter-insurgency mission they are being asked to perform in Southern Afghanistan. 

Among front-line troops, many of them used to more liberal rules of engagement in Iraq, frustration is boiling over. "It's like fighting with two hands behind your back," says Sgt. First Class Samuel Frantz, a platoon sergeant in Capt. Reim's unit, the Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion of the 12th Infantry Regiment. "We're so worried about not hurting the population's feelings that we're not doing our jobs."

"It doesn't matter if we get killed—we're here to die," says Lt. Mark Morrison, 24 years old, the leader of the second platoon. "Our lives are not valuable enough to protect."

As Lt. Morrison's platoon gathered for a patrol, his soldiers traded gallows humor about losing limbs in coming hours. "Look at it this way—if you get prosthetic legs, you get to be taller," one told a shorter comrade-in-arms.

To be sure, this is not the first or last time that soldiers on the frontlines have complained about a mission or engaged in gallows humor, but it does speak to the frustration one has to imagine exists among soldiers who've been taught to be fighters - and are now asked to be armed social workers.

But here's the part of the story that is really concerning:

Capt. Duke Reim, commander of the American unit responsible for Pashmul, estimates that about 95% of the locals are Taliban or aid the militants. District Gov. Niyaz Mohammad Serhadi agrees. "People here are on the side of the insurgency and have no trust in the government," he says. "Insurgents are in their villages 24 hours." 

Now Pashmul isn't in Helmand, it's in Kandahar province, but this gets to an issue I raised yesterday - if our overarching goal in Afghanistan is to protect civilians then why are we waging offensives in places where a strong segment of the population doesn't want us to be there? 

Allow me to answer my own question; because our goal is NOT to protect civilians it's to defeat the Taliban . . . and further US interests. This is hardly a surprise; after all isn't this why most countries go to war - to further their interests. But this fiction that we are in Afghanistan to help the Afghan people is just that: fiction. If tomorrow, the residents of Helmand and Kandahar said "we'd rather live under Taliban rule, US troops get out" do you think we'd actually leave? I don't and the reason is simple; we think it's in our interests to stay.  Long ago we decided that defeating the Taliban - and protecting the lives of US citizens - was more important than protecting the lives of Afghan citizens. Otherwise we wouldn't be sending more troops to Afghanistan because no matter how well we play it, as long as 100,000 US troops are on the ground, Afghan civilians are gong to die.

If our goal was to "win the people's trust," the perhaps easiest course would be to leave places like Pasmul or Marjah, but instead we're going to spend blood and treasure to convince them to trust a government and occupying force that they appear to be quite wary of. And that wariness is only likely to grow if Marjah ends up like Fallujah. 

I'm sorry but this is no way to fight a war. Either we're in places like Helmand and Kandahar to defeat the insurgency or we're there to protect the civilians. I'm not sure that it's possible to do both. In fact, right now it doesn't seem like we're doing a very good job at either.

Comments

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Hi,
The subject-matter dealt with should serve to draw attention in every country to the tragic fate of victims, and to the action taken by our Movement to help them. It is therefore felt important to discuss specific problems relating to the protection of the civilian population during armed conflicts, abuses committed against women, the suffering endured by thousands of children, the crucial problem of water shortages and starvation, closely linked to population movements, and the scandalous proliferation of antipersonnel mines. The Conference also offers an opportunity to bear witness, to explain, to arouse compassion, and to encourage rejection of the unacceptable.

[Yozhik]

You are taking an off-hand comment by a soldier as a statistic. It is his impression that 95% of the people support the insurgency. They do not. In this area the majority stay quite, while many village leaders who want to see change are threatened into inaction.

The strategy you propose was tried in Musa Qala in Helmand with the result being not an increase in peace, but an increase in violence and grievances against the government for not protecting the population.

[Mike D.]

Don't tell him I said this, but dude you are much smarter than Attackerman. God, he's gone so rah-rah lately. And while all but dismissing Al Qaeda current ability to hurt us. Hello? WTF are doing over there then? Seriously, what business is it of ours -- why are we killing them? I'll absolutely follow your ass on Twitter, bro.

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Either we're in places like Helmand and Kandahar to defeat the insurgency or we're there to protect the civilians. I'm not sure that it's possible to do both. In fact, right now it doesn't seem like we're doing a very good job at either.

Why are pounding this false distinction so hard? It's pretty obvious that the main method we are pursuing as per COMISAF is to separate the insurgency from the civilian population, while not doing anything to bring the two closer together.

In order to separate the two, we have to bring the fight to the enemy in territory it controls. Not sure why you are so confused about that ---the whole point of the strategy is to expand government control over the population while shrinking Taliban control.

Strategy = expand Afghan government control.
Tactic = population control/persuasion through ejecting Taliban forces from the midst of the population and establishing ANSF and NATO forces there instead.

You know: clear, hold, build. We're still in the process of clearing in some places, which sometimes entails civilian casualties. In other places, we are trying to hold and build, which will probably mean a lot less of that if we have the right mix of forces and governance.

I mean, is it really so hard to understand? It's not all population protection, and it's not all killing the enemy.

[BruceR]

@Yozhik: you're challenging the estimate of the senior Western soldier for a district about how strong an insurgency he's really facing? Do you have anything to base that on other than ideology?

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he's gone so rah-rah lately. And while all but dismissing Al Qaeda current ability to hurt us. Hello? WTF are doing over there then? Seriously, what business is it of ours -- why are we killing them?

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