Afghanistan – Kandahar/Argandab – 7.29.10

Tasking: Nate (11:30 AM EDT Thurs. 7.29.10) Needs completed by COB Fri. 7.30.10

  1. Imminent operations in Argandab, west of Kandahar
  2. Transcript of Levin – Mattis exchange for Mattis confirmation hearing 7.27 about Kandahar operation
  3. Look at open source and ISAF about what they say about the Kandahar operation
  4. Any tactical details
  5. Notice any details about the status of the Kandahar operation

Q: Are they or are they not abandoning the McChrystal-planned Kandahar operation?

Transcript:

  • Called Senate Armed Services Committee and they said that the written transcript is usually available about a week after the hearing.
  • Here is a video transcript from C-SPAN, which I listened to and took notes.
  • According to this hearing it sounds like the Argandab Operation is a go.
  • 24.45 – 26.00

Levin: I have pushed the Afghan Def. Min. took get the most capable Afghan troops to Kandahar, where challenge is the greatest, and get them into the lead. Levin and Sen. Reed (RI) made that point to Karzai, Afghan Def. Min., and Afghan Chief of their General Staff in early July. Wardack (Afghan Def. Min.) wrote and said he agreed with that and ordered 2 more infantry battalions and 2 commando battalions to support operations in Kandahar, because that is the heart of Taliban country. So, the Afghan Army will have more than 8,000 soldiers in Kandahar by Sept. 2010.

  • 26.50

Levin: There is going to be a major operation in the Argandab Valley in the next … actually it has already begun perhaps …at the end of this month [July, probably] and the beginning of next month [August, probably]. Will be a joint Afghan Army / ISAF operation. Will be at least 10,000 combined troops or more – majority from the Afghan Army 205th Corp. Effort is to clear the area of insurgent domination. Commander of the Afghan 205th Corp. announced publically that his staff had participated in the planning for the campaign, signed the orders, and that his forces would be in the lead in the Argandab campaign. Wonder, when you are confirmed, that you will focus specifically on that campaign and do you know of its design?

  • 28:00

Mattis: Until I am confirmed I am not a familiar as I would be as the Centcom Commander, however, the partnering effort that is underway, the jointness of it, the joint planning and execution. Already over 7,000 Afghan soldiers in Kandahar, so they are rapidly approaching the strength they need, all sets the conditions for a very successful campaign whenever the determine the conditions are right to kick it off.

Articles/Reports:

Mattis Backs 2011 Drawdown Date, Kandahar Ops

  • By Spencer Ackerman
  • July 27, 2010 |
  • 6:16 pm |
  • Categories: Army and Marines


Wait, wasn’t Marine General James Mattis supposed to be an impolitic and brash officer? That guy didn’t show up to a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing Tuesday afternoon to helm U.S. Central Command.

Instead, the Mattis that fielded senatorial questions for two hours backed the Obama administration’s plan to begin a “conditions-based withdrawal” in July 2011; supported his pal General Petraeus in an imminent effort to get the Taliban out of Kandahar; and pledged an integrated civil-military and multilateral approach to the Middle East and South Asia. He sounded a lot more like the “warrior-scholar” his supporters portray.

Support for July 2011 and its ambiguous meaning — a big troop reduction or a gradual one — turned Petraeus’ hearing to command the Afghanistan war last month into something of a political carnival. Not so for Mattis, who stuck to Petraeus’ script pretty closely. Setting the date “brings a sense of urgency, because I think it starts a process that is conditions based [and] we can also moderate the enemy’s message that says we’re there to occupy Afghanistan,” Mattis said, adding that the U.S. won’t be handing off Afghanistan “like a hot potato.” That was apparently enough to satisfy Senator John McCain, the leading critic of setting the date, who didn’t press the point.

Mattis didn’t have much to say about the first big challenge of his likely new job: supporting Petraeus as the Afghanistan commander moves forward to take Kandahar from the Taliban. In fact, Senator Carl Levin, the committee chairman, upstaged Mattis a bit, talking about imminent operations in Argandab, west of Kandahar city, that will feature 10,000 troops, more than half of which will be Afghan. Mattis demurred on the wisdom of the operation, saying he wanted to get a greater understanding of it before he weighed in, but added that the “jointness” of the apparent plan helps set “the conditions for a very successful campaign.”

Indeed, when it comes to Kandahar, there has been some recent press speculation that Petraeus has abandoned General McChrystal’s campaign plan. But Levin’s description of the coming military push refuted those stories. As does one NATO officer who emails us from Kabul: “The Kandahar operation is being executed as planned with some minor tweaks that normally need to be made once an operation begins. General Petraeus is not undertaking any sweeping changes of the Kandahar campaign and all remains on track.”

Mattis cast himself in the mode of previous warrior-diplomat CENTCOM chiefs, pledging a “regional” approach that would aid moderates, deter enemies — especially Iran’s “destabilizing activities” — and foster deeper U.S. ties in the volatile region. He said there was “nothing” in the region that could be solved by a purely military approach. When asked, for instance, what role the military could play in resolving the India-Pakistan conflict, he offered joint U.S. military education. “It’s fundamentally a political problem, not a military one, of course,” he said.

Spoken like a diplomat in uniform. His confirmation is pretty much assured — Senators from both parties offered not just support, but effusive praise — so maybe Mattis will get to CENTCOM’s Tampa headquarters before he resumes any blunt talk.

Credit: USMC

Read More

Gen Petraeus scraps McChrystal's plan to take Kandahar

Gen David Petraeus, the new US commander in Afghanistan, has scrapped his predecessor's plan to secure the southern city of Kandahar.

by Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Published: 9:00PM BST 23 Jul 2010

General David PetraeusPhoto: GETTY

Security experts and officials said that a full-scale military encirclement and invasion – as American troops had done in Iraq's Fallujah – was not an appropriate model to tackle the Taliban in the southern capital. All elements of the campaign were being adjusted in response to conditions encountered by the Nato-led coalition.

Gen Petraeus’s decision to revise the entire strategy comes just weeks after he arrived in Afghanistan following the abrupt dismissal of Gen Stanley McChrystal for insubordination.

Gen McChrystal had planned a summer conquest of the Taliban in Kandahar to reinvigorate the battle against the Taliban.

But the operation has been repeatedly delayed by concerns that it would not adequately restore the confidence of city residents in the security forces.

Gen Petraeus is reported to believe that the operation must be a broad-ranging counter-insurgency campaign, involving more troops working with local militias.

The plan he inherited was criticised for placing too much emphasis on targeted assassinations of key insurgent leaders and not enough on winning over local residents.

Richard Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, rejected speculation that the Kandahar operation had been derailed during a visit to London but said that preparations were ongoing across a broad range of areas. He refused to subscribe to suggestions that the operation was being delayed but that efforts were being upgraded.

“Kandahar is not a military operation like Fallujah,” Mr Holbrooke said. "Its a different kind of thing. And with David Petraeus on the ground, he's scrubbing it down, he's looking at it again.“

President Hamid Karzai has bolstered GenPetraeus’s efforts by agreeing to a US proposal to pay defectors from the Taliban to form local defence militias.

Mr Holbrooke, who oversees the civilian component of the American campaign in Afghanistan, has been described by Gen Petraeus as his “wing man” in the effort to reverse Taliban gains.

He said that the changes of strategy in the area also included a decision not to destroy poppy crops this year, an action that had in the past “driven” farmers into alliance with the Taliban. Supporting agricultural reforms was a central focus of the American campaign to improve livelihoods in the south. There was also a much more comprehensive and effective effort to improve the training of the Afghan security forces. He pointed out that literary tests were being applied to new police recruits for the first time.

He also said that the Afghan police force in Marjah – which now numbers 60 – could not yet replace thousands of US Marines. Efforts to stabilise Helmand’s Marjah have been bogged down by stronger resistance.

Defections from the Taliban are crucial to the goal of ending the war within four years but Mr Holbrooke said only insurgent groups that had split with al-Qaeda, and willing to work within the framework of the Afghan constitution would be approached.

More effort was being put into recruiting local allies on a district by district basis. But there were firm "red lines" governing the more politically sensitive issue of reconciling Taliban and other insurgents on the battlefield.

“The reintegration policy is the key to a successful counter-insurgency campaign,” he said. “As for reconciliation, it’s out there somewhere. We’ve talked about it. The US will support Afghan-led reconciliation and by that we mean we need to know what’s going on. Not much is going on now, and nothing is going on with the United States.”

Mr Holbrooke said Pakistan had dramatically increased its co-operation with the US in the battle against the Taliban but he criticised Islamabad’s continuing support for the Haqqani network of insurgents.

“Without Pakistan’s participation, this (Afghan) war could go on indefinitely,” he said. “There’s much more co-operation at every level

“But I don’t want to mislead you, it is not yet where we hope it will be. What we talk about is the Haqqani network. Let’s be very specific. It’s a real problem.”

Posted on Friday, 07.23.10

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New checkpoints are key to coming Afghan military operation

By DION NISSENBAUM

McClatchy Newspapers

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- When the U.S. and Afghan militaries launch their long-awaited Kandahar operation as early as this weekend, the key to its success may lie in some obscure mountain roads that connect the dusty heartland of the Taliban insurgency with a fertile valley nearby.

One is the "Ant Pass," a rocky, windswept passage through which Taliban fighters shuttled in and out of Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, to attack U.S. convoys, assassinate Afghan government officials, plant roadside bombs and target international development offices.

After a series of frustrating delays, American and Afghan forces aim to transform this narrow gateway into a crucial choke point on the eve of the initial showdown in the fertile Arghandab Valley, which stretches out below the pass.

With U.S. soldiers keeping watch, specially trained Afghan police officers stand alongside towering new concrete barriers that divide the two-lane highway that runs from the Arghandab into one of Kandahar's more Taliban-friendly neighborhoods.

In the coming days, hundreds of Afghan fighters and American soldiers will descend on the Arghandab in an attempt to push an estimated 150 to 200 Taliban militants out of the valley's network of vineyards and pomegranate groves.

The long-anticipated battle, a campaign that's expected to last about two weeks, will be the first serious test for U.S. and Afghan forces in Kandahar this summer. If the Taliban can be chased out of the Arghandab and kept out, the joint forces will turn toward battling militants in even more dangerous parts of Kandahar province to the south and west.

The battle for Kandahar originally was envisaged as a confrontation that could cripple Taliban fighters and compel their leaders to cut a peace deal with U.S.-backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

However, unforeseen delays and setbacks have forced the international military coalition to re-evaluate its plans. That, in turn, has cast doubt on President Barack Obama's pledge to begin scaling back the military operation next July.

Negotiations over which companies would provide the cement delayed construction of the checkpoint, and land disputes have held up plans to establish a key checkpoint on an alternative route into the Arghandab, a delay that could give Taliban fighters an escape route.

While the specially trained police who are responsible for the new checkpoints are considered a cut above the conventional and widely disparaged Afghan police, U.S. soldiers say they need constant oversight.

Amid criticism from U.S. politicians worried about the pace of the war in a congressional election year, Western strategists pumped thousands of coalition forces into Kandahar to help their Afghan counterparts create a "rising tide of security."

The ring of checkpoints is the most visible manifestation of the military plans.

Though the security web is incomplete, NATO's top military strategists are betting that the checkpoints will frustrate Taliban attackers trying to hit Kandahar and force them out of the Arghandab.

"I think we will discover that this will piss the insurgency off," said British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter, the commander of coalition forces in southern Afghanistan. "The dynamics are going to be interesting. I think you will find how we progress in southeastern Arghandab ... will be an indicator of whether or not this project is going to work."

NATO strategists are building about 17 checkpoints on the routes leading from Kandahar into the districts around the city where the Taliban built their power base.

The Taliban already have turned their sights on the security ring. On July 13, suicide bombers targeted the main Afghan police compound in Kandahar that's responsible for the checkpoints. The sophisticated attack killed three American soldiers, an Afghan police officer and three Afghan interpreters.

"That security ring is a filter," said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Ben Hodges, the director of NATO operations in southern Afghanistan. "It's not a ring of steel. It's not a defensive belt. It's a filter to separate insurgents from the population. And there's no doubt in my mind that the enemy is going to come after these things, because they have been very effective."

The problems Hodges has faced setting up the checkpoints are emblematic of the broader challenge in Kandahar.

It took far longer than expected to train and deploy the Afghan soldiers and police officers who are taking part in the Kandahar campaign, and military officials were dragged into local land disputes and protracted contract talks as they set out to build the checkpoints.

"I failed to anticipate how long it would take to get concrete," Hodges said. "We've got nine different contractors delivering T-walls. And land ownership is an absolute mystical science here."

For now, traffic flowing out of Kandahar through Ant Pass can back up for up to two hours as Afghan police, with U.S. soldiers looking on, inspect as many as 1,700 cars, trucks, motorcycles and auto rickshaws.

On a recent afternoon, cars heading out of Kandahar cut in front of listing trucks, and motorcyclists inched up the gritty pass toward the checkpoint.

On the opposite side, traffic from Arghandab ran smoothly as Afghan police waved through the trickle of vehicles on the road that runs into one of the most unstable, Taliban-friendly districts in Kandahar city.

One police officer sat in the shade of a building until his commander turned up with a reporter from McClatchy Newspapers.

"Stand up," the commander shouted to the police officer. "They're journalists. They're taking pictures."

In short order, the police officers began stopping every vehicle that was coming from Arghandab.

Besides choking off Taliban routes into Kandahar, the checkpoints are designed to persuade Afghans that the arrival of U.S.-trained forces will end endemic police corruption.

With American military mentors looking on, Afghanistan's elite police force, made up of newly trained and better-educated officers from outside Kandahar, has taken charge of inspections at the new checkpoints.

So far, there've been no reports of the new officers demanding bribes from drivers, said Army Capt. Steven J. Davis, 26, of Lansing, Mich., who's stationed in Kandahar city with the 82nd Airborne Division's 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, from Fort Bragg, N.C.