Jason Thomas From: The Australian June 10, 2011 12:00AM AUSTRALIAN soldiers are the strongest tribe in Oruzgan province. Like the US marines in Helmand, the Australians are taking a zero-tolerance approach to delivering security. Pashtuns respond to tough love as well as bravery, courage, honour and revenge. They are also very polite, even though tomorrow they may kill you. If you could bring back Alexander the Great, he would say we are fighting the same people, using the same tactics they used against him 2000 years ago. It is the shift in the rules of engagement during the past 18 months - not handing out bags of well-meaning money - that is winning hearts and minds in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan there has been a franchised approach to counterinsurgency (COIN) based on benevolence rather than strength. Handing out money was seen to be more important than shooting the enemy: protecting people who don't want to be protected and forcing 21st-century democracy on Pashtuns coming out of the 9th century. The criterion of success is meant to be districts standing on their own without US rifle companies. This has never been achieved. Yet Australian counterinsurgency specialist David Kilcullen's version of COIN fails to cover circumstances found in today's theatre: namely a corrupt government lacking legitimacy and competence, as well as insurgents enjoying external support and sanctuary in Pakistan. The war in Afghanistan is not about a kinder, gentler war. As pointed out by the author of The Strongest Tribe , former marine combat veteran Bing West, who for months bunkered down under fire with the troops, Kilcullen is now backtracking on his previous overly optimistic conclusions about the war in Afghanistan. Providing security is not about being nice, it is about being strong: convincing the population you are going to win. In the Waygul Valley, Konar, the US spent millions on development and still the population remains hostile and at best neutral. In most areas the population is still waiting to see who is the strongest. Sure, they will thank you for the medical clinic, but that is not a sign of support for the Afghanistan government. Australian soldiers understand that the local Taliban could easily be picking up an AK47 one day and a shovel to clean a karez, an irrigation canal, the next. Our troops have the situational awareness to recognise both actions are about local interests and have nothing to do with nation building or global jihad. In fact there are places in Afghanistan, such as the Pech Valley, where the people are deeply hostile to any outsiders, even other Afghans. Think of walking into a bar in the remote Northern Territory or Western Australia. If you are not a local, the darts would stop in mid-air. You can buy a round of beers, but it doesn't mean they will like you and certainly doesn't mean they want you to move into the neighbourhood with your decaff, skinny soy latte and modernising ideals. We have overlooked that people and ideas are the essence of why wars are fought and how they are fought. Another way to look at the contest over the human terrain is to evaluate how the insurgents see our Western moral principles. They, too, can be a sign of weakness. Transnational terrorists such as al-Qa'ida and the insurgents in Afghanistan exploit the foundations of our own mindset. As Ibn Warraq, author of the 1995 book Why I am Not a Muslim, wrote: "Americans [and their allies] tend to think that deep down we all have the same values. Americans believe that all these terrorists, if you scratch beneath the surface, are looking for religious equality and justice. That's complete and utter nonsense. Americans [and their allies] can't face the reality that different people have different values." I am not saying we should abandon our principles. However, we can often be seen as weak in our moral rejection of certain methods of retaliation and our propensity to uphold international rules of war and principles of human rights. Australian soldiers need to continue to demonstrate supreme strength in their battle space. Their mission must be to instil this resolve into each new recruit of the 4th Afghan National Army Brigade. We need to link the negative, coercive side of war to the positive and constructive side of war; that is, to allow military operations to construct a sustainable local solution, even if that solution is allowing the local Taliban - not the foreign Taliban (with their sanctuary in Pakistan) - to remain in the valleys of Afghanistan. As long as the local district Taliban leaders do not allow transnational terrorists such as al-Qa'ida to re-establish in their areas, then the ISAF-NATO forces will not interfere in their community. It is for these reasons that Australian soldiers should be recognised for their prowess in this modern discipline of soldiering. Jason Thomas has worked as an implementing NGO partner in southeast Afghanistan with US forces. He is pursuing a doctorate at Curtin University.
