http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5js0ke2ME8iST3YNuVmzz7wYfNvTQ
Canadian Press December 3, 2009 With reinforcements in place, NATO shakeup counter-insurgency effort By Jonathan Montpetit -Obama's plan amounts to an endorsement of McChrystal's population-centric approach to counter-insurgency, which sees NATO forces repositioning around urban areas. Canada's new area of responsibility will make it responsible for roughly 75 to 85 per cent of the population in Kandahar province. KANDAHAR, Afghanistan:— Bolstered by reinforcements from the United States, NATO forces in Afghanistan are set to embark on a critical push to retake the initiative from an insurgency.... NATO is dramatically reorganizing its strategy to fend off a resurgent Taliban in the southern provinces, giving Canadian commanders additional troops to secure Kandahar city, the linchpin of the Pashtun belt. U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who heads NATO's effort in Afghanistan, briefed senior coalition commanders at Kandahar Airfield on Wednesday about the implications of the additional 30,000 American troops being sent by President Barack Obama. "We are going to focus, with additional forces, in the south," McChrystal said. "The south is going to be the main effort. I believe by next summer the uplift of new forces will make a difference on the ground significantly." There is a one to two-year window for coalition forces to turn back an insurgency that appears to be gathering in strength, he added, citing figures that indicate a 60 per cent increase in violence in Afghanistan since 2008. Of the three main insurgent networks operating in the country, McChrystal identified the Taliban based in Kandahar, where 2,800 Canadian troops are based, as the most dangerous. That group, he said, "wants to be the government of Afghanistan, (and) has been the government of Afghanistan," McChrystal said. "Starting after 2001, slowly they have made a resurgence." As part of NATO's shakeup, Canada's area of operation in Kandahar is changing significantly. Task Force Kandahar, the Canadian military command, has ceded control of territory in order to consolidate its forces closer to Kandahar city. .... This effectively puts Canada in charge of a cordon around the second-largest urban area in Afghanistan. .... The inclusion of another American battalion to the two already under Canadian control will dramatically alter the nature of the Canadian military headquarters. "We have to look at TFK not being a Canadian brigade anymore," said Col. Simon Bernard, the Canadian chief of long-term planning. "It's going to be a Canadian-U.S. brigade." Obama's plan amounts to an endorsement of McChrystal's population-centric approach to counter-insurgency, which sees NATO forces repositioning around urban areas. Canada's new area of responsibility will make it responsible for roughly 75 to 85 per cent of the population in Kandahar province. .... The surge in American troops, combined with Menard's ring of stability, are designed to forestall Taliban efforts to undermine support for Afghanistan's nascent government institutions. .... As part of their effort to hasten the training of the Afghan National Police and Afghan National Army, NATO will promote more comprehensive mentoring programs. But handing over security to Afghan forces within 18 months is ambitious, and stretches credulity in Kandahar where distrust for local soldiers and police runs high. "Training ANA and ANP and sending more troops just looks like a political game to me," said Kandahar city's mayor, Ghulam Haider Hamidi. "Our police is very, very corrupt. There are many people in ANA and ANP who work for the Taliban." Many Kandaharis are skeptical that the influx of foreign troops will have much of an impact on security, which they feel has declined steadily since the first few triumphant after the fall of the Taliban. "There are already so many foreigners and the security situation is worse than before," said Muhammad Jan, a taxi driver. The Taliban also joined the critics of the troop surge. In a statement, the Taliban said the Obama administration's plan was "no solution for the problems of Afghanistan" and would give insurgents an opportunity "to increase their attacks and shake the American economy, which is already facing crisis." "This stratagem will not pay off," it said, adding the surge will result in increased deaths of U.S. troops. =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato Blog site: http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/ To subscribe, send an e-mail to: rwroz...@yahoo.com or stopnato-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Daily digest option available. ==============================
