Drug Profits help Taliban

Aussies in action.

Call for more troops to bring Taliban to heel

Mark Dodd, Kandahar Air Base, Afghanistan December 10, 2007

A SENIOR Australian army staff officer serving in Afghanistan has warned that efforts to rebuild the war-ravaged country are being impeded by narcotic-driven profits propping up the Taliban resistance.

Colonel Don Roach says despite this and the ongoing effects of corruption, the rebuilding of the 80,000-strong Afghan National Army is now more than 70per cent complete.

But he has also warned that the NATO-backed International Security Assistance Force and its Afghan army allies are stretched too thinly in Oruzgan province, home to the 370-strong Australian Reconstruction Task Force, which is facing a growing threat from resurgent Taliban militants.

"In the south a huge part of the border with Pakistan remains uncontrolled allowing for the unimpeded flow of illicit narcotics and armed insurgents," Colonel Roach said.

The lives of three Australian servicemen have been lost in southern Afghanistan in the past two months. Trooper David Pearce was killed when a bomb was detonated under his light-armoured vehicle on October 8; a few weeks later SAS Trooper Matthew Locke was shot in the chest during a firefight; and last month Private Luke Worsley was killed by small arms fire. SAS Sergeant Andrew Russell was killed in 2003 when his vehicle struck a landmine.

"One of the fundamental principles of a counter-insurgency is you can always do with more forces," said Colonel Roach, who is on the headquarters staff of the ISAF, serving as its senior liaison officer with the Afghan army and police in Regional Command South.

"You can go into an area and leave and Taliban will come back and chop peoples heads off.

"In a counter-insurgency you need enough numbers to be able to sustain security and the confidence of the people."

This was not currently the case in Oruzgan, he said.

While there had been good progress on rebuilding the Afghan national army, the same could not be said of the police force, which faced a top-to-bottom rebuild that would take years to complete, Colonel Roach said.

ISAF, a 38-nation coalition of which Australia is a major player, says it is quietly encouraged by the results of a new joint operation with Afghan authorities to improve road security involving the dismantling of illegal police checkpoints in the violence-wracked south.

In Zharey district in Kandahar province some successful police reforms are already taking hold. Six official checkpoints, some co-manned by Canadian troops, have now replaced 26, located along the main highway - many of which were formerly used by local police to bribe or extort local businessmen.

The Zharey experiment is now spreading to other districts in the province, Colonel Roach said.
A major initiative is also underway to re-equip the Afghan security forces with tens of thousands of new M-16 rifles, part of a modernisation program that will include 5.56mm infantry weapons replacing the ubiquitous 7.62mm Kalashnikov, which is also the weapon of choice for the Taliban.

The news is not all bad. At the Tarin Kowt forward operating base Lieutenant Colonel David Wainwright, in charge of the 370-strong reconstruction task force, says Diggers under his command have played a major role in successfully securing the strategic Baluchi Pass to the northeast of this key Dutch-Australian base.

Meanwhile, the federal Government has denied already committing Australian troops to spend another three years in Afghanistan.

Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon yesterday contradicted a Dutch government report to its parliament that Australia and the US had agreed to stay in the strife-torn south beyond 2008.

Mr Fitzgibbon said there had been no change to the term of the deployment in Afghanistan beyond August next year.

Additional reporting: AAP
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au

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Aussie Iraq role after pullout
Mark Dodd December 07, 2007

THE Australian Defence Force will continue to play an influential role in Iraq with its Orion surveillance aircraft and unmanned spy planes in the event that the Government withdraws the 515-strong combat taskforce.

Speaking at a coalition base in the Persian Gulf, Australia's Middle East commander, Major General Mark Evans, told The Australian that while he had no formal notification from Canberra, his US counterparts were prepared for the ADF pullout from southern al-Muthanna and Dhi Qar provinces. Labor committed to a pullout during the election campaign.

The Iraqi security forces and the provincial governments were well positioned to go it alone, General Evans said. But he stopped short of saying it would be a risk-free transition.

"If we have to withdraw the combat element, primarily the Overwatch Battle Group, they (Australians) have worked hard over the past few months to provide an environment by which the Iraqi army and Government have the confidence to stand on their own two feet," he said.

But no formal orders had been received from Canberra confirming the Government's decision to withdraw, he said.

"I am quite positive about where we are at if the Government directs us to withdraw the battle group," he said. "I think we will have done an excellent job both assisting the Iraqi army in Dhi Qar and al-Muthanna."

Iraqis would look back kindly on the work undertaken on their behalf by the ADF, he said.
More than 14,000 Iraqi security personnel have been trained by the Australians and the 100-strong training team will not be withdrawn under the Rudd Iraq policy.

While the modest Australian deployment in Iraq has avoided the urban counter-insurgency operations that have claimed more than 3380 US lives, General Evans said battlefield success was not always judged by the outcome of combat action.

"In a counter-insurgency, in many ways the less you are kinetic the better. Certainly I think our operations have been subtle. We've had the benefit of being in an area that has responded well to that approach.

"We have been lucky in many ways but we have exploited that luck and we've given the Iraqis the breathing space they need."

The base from which General Evans was speaking - it cannot be named for security reasons - is a day's drive from Baghdad. At night, 200-vehicle convoys assemble for a perilous drive to the capital with supplies for troops.

RAAF Orion surveillance aircraft were playing a major role in providing cover for this vital land bridge, General Evans said.

Two of the ageing but hi-tech P3C spy planes are based nearby, supported by 170 air force personnel.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/

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