Published: 01 July 2007
How do soldiers who want to live beat an enemy that welcomes martyrdom and death? On a pitch-black desert night in southern Afghanistan, the thunder of artillery rumbling in the distance, Lance Corporal Matt "Orange" Hall appeared to find the answer pretty obvious. "By killing them," he replied simply.
For a 21-year-old in the mobile Brigade Reconnaissance Force, which spends months in the desert at the sharp end, it is clearly survival of the fittest, or at least of the soldier with the greatest firepower. His unit is part of 12 Mechanised Brigade, which has not shied away from greeting the expected spring surge of Taliban activity with blunt force.
Along the fertile inhabited strip bordering the Helmand river, where the insurgents fight amid a maze of mud compounds, irrigation ditches and tunnels, the British force has taken the battle to the enemy, and usually triumphed. Taliban strongholds have been cleared from the Sangin valley, leading up to the vital dam project at Kajaki, which could supply hydro-electricity to the whole of southern Afghanistan if the area around it can be made safe.
"This is what we needed to do to get support from the population," said Lieutenant Colonel Charlie Mayo, the brigade spokesman. "They needed to see Isaf [Nato's International Security Assistance Force] taking on the Taliban, and not the other way round."
British troops, especially those who have served in Iraq, welcome the chance to confront the enemy head-on in what they see as a winnable conflict, and morale is high. But taking on the Taliban poses new problems: although the British force has doubled in size since last year, it often cannot hold the ground it has seized. Frontline troops know it is sometimes just hours before the Taliban begin seeping back into areas where they have been driven out.
The solution is supposed to lie with the fledgling Afghan security forces, yet Helmand has just three kandaks (the equivalent of a 600-man battalion), with a fourth due to be formed soon. British officers are at pains to praise the fighting spirit of the Afghan National Army, but privately complain their tactics and self-discipline are often lacking.
The pressure on British forces in Afghanistan is so great that the Army's own guidelines on the length of breaks servicemen should have from active service are being breached. The Ministry of Defence has admitted that the pressure of fighting on two fronts means it is not adhering to its own "harmony guidelines", which recommend a 24-month break from operations between each six-month tour of duty.
Figures released by Lord Drayson, the defence minister, show the degree of overstretch among the units currently in Afghanistan. The 1st Battalion of the Grenadier Guards has had only eight months out of action, and the Royal Signals 2 Signal Regiment is the only one to have had the regulation two-year break. The head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, has said troops are stretched to the limit of what they can achieve.
Apart from the risks to the soldiers, pushing into insurgent-held territory also increases the danger of civilian casualties, especially when outnumbered troops call in air strikes to avoid being overrun by an enemy which has no concern about collateral damage. But last week Nato conceded that Afghan President Hamid Karzai was right to be "disappointed and angry" at the scale of civilian casualties, and agreed that its forces need to do more to avoid them.
This year there have been at least 245 civilian deaths, with many more unreported, and yesterday there were claims that more than 50 might have been killed in bombardments near Gereshk, one of the main British bases. The sequence of events was typical: while villagers reported the deaths of women and children, and Nato acknowledged operations were going on in the area, an Isaf spokesman said he knew only of insurgents, not civilians, being killed. There is rarely news of any follow-up investigation of such incidents, lending force to Mr Karzai's complaint that "Afghan life is not cheap, and it should not be treated as such".
Norine MacDonald, a Canadian QC who lives in Kandahar and runs an aid group called the Senlis Council, said last week: "Despite our good intentions, we are seeing that the Afghan people are accumulating a growing number of legitimate grievances.
"The increasing number of civilians killed by foreign troops in bombing raids, the forced poppy crop eradication which leaves farmers unable to feed their families, and the lack of food aid in the face of a starvation crisis are all turning the Afghans against the international community and into the arms of a resurgent Taliban political movement. We are winning the local military mission, but not the strategic political mission."
British officers in Helmand believe this is too bleak a picture, and point to numerous "quick effect" projects under way, such as a new maternity unit being built in Lashkar Gah, and irrigation ditches dug for farmers. In Sangin - a deserted "Wild West" town months ago - the market is now bustling. While NGOs continue to steer clear of the violent province, the Foreign Office and Department for International Development presence has been beefed up, and in Lashkar Gah at least, there is a sense of hope among local people.
The commander of 12 Mechanised Brigade, Brigadier John Lorimer, is all too aware that the battle he faces in Helmand will be won, not by the bullet, but by the perception of progress. "The people stay close to the fence so they can jump over," he said. "You need to know what makes them leap.
"The concept of time is different. We come in here with our white Western ideas and we have to get it done now. They will not necessarily make the decision immediately. They will not change allegiances immediately. They will not support the government of Afghanistan immediately, because they have heard it all before. They want to play the long game."
So do the British, according to our new man in Kabul, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, who said last week it could take "decades" to establish an effective government in Afghanistan. Efforts to stabilise and rebuild the nation, he said, were a "marathon rather than a sprint". Brigadier Lorimer agreed, saying it could take 10 years to counter the insurgency.
"Is it easy? No. It is bloody hard," he continued. "The starting point is low. It is going to take time, and there are going to be glitches along the way. It is up to the international community. How important is Afghanistan? Is it worth the blood and treasure?"
That is just one of the questions Gordon Brown has to answer as he faces one of the most dramatic introductions to office any Prime Minister can have experienced. This weekend the threat of terrorism at home may be uppermost, and the issue of what to do next in Iraq may seem more immediate. But Afghanistan could prove the longest-running and most challenging of the conflicts he has been bequeathed.
Additional reporting by Raymond Whitaker and Marie Woolf
