Kabul, Afghanistan *NEW*

We’re finally headed home, where there are paved roads, no Russian landmines, and the man standing at the next intersection isn’t going to blow himself to pieces trying to kill me, my family, and my friends. At home, drinkable water comes out of a faucet, not just from a plastic bottle. Home is where meals come on plates, not in brown plastic bags, and we have air conditioning and fresh green vegetables, and showers last as long as we want. At home, we go to work in coats and ties instead of body armor and helmets. At home, our vehicles don’t have turrets and if we drive after dark, we use headlights instead of night-vision goggles. At home, “overhead cover” is protection from the elements, not a defense from enemy rocket or mortar fire.

In America, we take all these things for granted. Here in the shadows of the Hindu Kush, however, ignoring any of them could get a soldier, sailor, airman, Guardsman, or Marine killed. Unfortunately, the so-called mainstream media has ignored this fight for so long few in the U.S. are even aware of the challenges confronting our 33,000 troops in this always difficult and often dangerous place. For the benefit of those who care, here are some particulars the potentates of the press have overlooked. First, the bad news:

• Islamic radicals know their cause is lost in Iraq, so remnants of the Taliban, al-Qaeda and foreign fighters, intent on joining a jihad against the West, are flooding into Afghanistan from Pakistan and Iran. Factions in both neighboring countries are providing safe havens, training, and material support to those who want to overthrow the democratically elected government in Kabul.
 
• Despite seven years of United Nations and NATO “assistance” to Afghanistan, the Afghan National Army and Police have fewer than 65,000 troops and the country still has only one paved highway (Route 1, the “Ring Road”). As we were reminded firsthand on this trip, the dirt tracks passing for roads here are laced with landmines and improvised explosive devices, causing numerous U.S. and Afghan casualties and isolating the population.–Illicit drug production—heroin/opium/hashish/marijuana, the only real export commodity in the country—is an enormous criminal enterprise, generating more than $5 billion in cash to benefit the Taliban and corrupt officials in the Afghan government.
 
• The U.N.-led “economic reconstruction” of Afghanistan is a miserable failure. The number of displaced refugees, life expectancy, live birth rate, illiteracy, childhood disease, malnutrition, and unemployment all are getting worse instead of better because of incompetence, corruption, and the lack of coordination among “international donors.” The Taliban insurgency thrives on ignorance and misery. As one U.S. officer in Afghanistan put it, “We’re feeding the beast.”
 
• There is no coherent command-and-control structure or common set of operating procedures among the Afghan National Army, the Afghan National Police, or the 40 nations in NATO’s International Security Assistance Force. Nearly all of these entities have differing rules of engagement and national caveats on how they are employed. Though some U.S. units, such as the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and the 101st Airborne Division, have integral air support, others have to rely on ISAF. As a result, wounded Americans have waited hours for casualty evacuation that sometimes never comes.
   

Now the good news. Though there are significant cultural and tribal differences between Afghanistan and Iraq—the military/security situation in Afghanistan is similar to what it was in Mesopotamia two and a half years ago. Both campaigns are equally “winnable” if we do the right things. Some repairs will take time, but these are urgently needed:

• Inform both the Pakistani and Iranian governments that insurgent cross-border operations will not be tolerated and if Taliban/terror bases on their territories are not closed, they will be attacked.
 

• Commence building paved roads throughout all of Afghanistan’s thirty-four provinces, not just in urban areas. Such projects will generate tens of thousands of jobs, create lasting infrastructure, reduce casualties from IEDs and mines, and show the Afghan people their government cares about them.–Stop illicit drug production from the top down, not the bottom up. Arrest and prosecute the kingpins and then go for eradication and crop replacement. It worked in Colombia, and it can work in Afghanistan.
   
• Fix the unity of command problem immediately. The NATO-ISAF command structure should be shut down. “Allied” forces that can’t or won’t fight should be thanked and sent home. More U.S. troops are needed in Afghanistan, but unless our new president gives Gen. Petraeus clear lines of authority to do what has to be done, the Afghan army and police never will get the equipment and training they need. Gen. Petraeus did it in Iraq. Now he needs to do it in Afghanistan.

The Afghan people don’t want to be ruled by Islamic radicals. There is no real backing for the Taliban beyond what they can coerce from the civilian population. Afghan soldiers— properly trained, equipped, led, and supported—are brave and fight well, but they can’t win unless these problems are fixed. As Brig. Gen. Khair Mohammad, chief of staff of the 207th Corps, Western Military Region, told me when we visited his headquarters, “We need to have America’s help to win this fight. Your enemy is our enemy.”

from the book American Heroes by Oliver North Copyright ©2008. All RIghts Reserved.
Published by B&H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee.