Whether or not it's sensible, giving up Afghans to the Taliban looks awful.
And hurts.
Imagine you are an Afghan father with a young daughter.
You are non political but care that your daughter has a decent life.
You could send your daughter to school, have her learn a trade, give her some choices. But if you think the Taliban will/could/may be back why would you risk your daughter's life giving her an education? Indeed, safety suggests quite the opposite.
Military concedes territory in Afghanistan to Taliban Brian Hutchinson, National Post
Sunday, May 3, 2009
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Canada's military has conceded hard-won territory west of Kandahar City to Taliban insurgents.
The dismantling of a police substation in Mushan village signals the start of a new strategy that will see Canadian Forces troops move closer to Kandahar City.
But Mushan village and surrounding communities in western Panjwaii district are left without a fixed Canadian presence for the first time in two years. The police substation, also called a strong point, was dismantled last week, in a large-scale operation called Munkiredal, the Pashto word for deny.
In a briefing Sunday with reporters at Kandahar Air Field, Canadian officers explained that the 64 Afghans stationed inside the fortress, with a rotation of eight Canadian military mentors, were not able to disrupt insurgent activity in the area. The village is about 40 kilometres west of Kandahar Air Field.
It is now under Taliban control, the officers said, as is much of the Panjwaii peninsula, an area of some 160 square kilometres where poppy is a major cash crop for insurgents. The Canadian officers deny that Canada has abandoned the local population.
"I can see how it could be [interpreted that way]," said Maj. Stephane Briand, operations planning officer for the Quebec-led battle group in Kandahar. "
James Morton
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2 comments:
There's a lot in this story that is left unsaid. Remember Operation Medusa in September, 2006when our top generals told us they had destroyed the Taliban in Panjwai district or Operation Falcon in December '06 when they again drove the Taliban out of Panjwai for all time? It became such a recurring theme we stopped announcing it with grandiose operational titles.
We never drove the Taliban out. Instead we would up establishing 'outposts' a sure sign of failure in any counterinsurgency war.
Now, we're retreating. Why? Because we need to fall back in defence of the provincial capital, Kandahar City. We can't hold the countryside, even a scant 40 kms. from our main garrison, because oitherwise the insurgents will overrun the provincial capital.
I'm so damned tired of Canadian reporters slathering lipstick on this pig. We've never been in this to win and the window of opportunity for changing that closed no later than 2003 to 2004.
I think I'm siding with Mound of Sound on this one. As I wrote on my own blog, the military has been committed to Mushan until pretty recently. It's unfortunate that our media is doing the public the disservice of parroting military talking points on this issue with so little in the way of independent journalism or criticism.
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