In 120 Districts The Pentagon "Views As Critical" "The Government Has Full Control In Fewer Than A Half Dozen"
U.S. Col. Says The Karzai Government Is "Rotten" And Civilians "Help The Insurgents Who Attack It"
May 13, 2010
By ALISSA J. RUBIN, New York Times [Excerpts]
JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Nearly a year into a new war strategy for Afghanistan, the hardest fighting is still ahead, but already it is clear that the biggest challenge lies not on the battlefield but in the governing of Afghanistan itself.
In 120 districts that the Pentagon views as critical to Afghanistan's future stability, only a quarter of residents view the government positively.
And the government has full control in fewer than a half dozen of these districts.
Even as American troops clear areas of militants, they find either no government to fill the vacuum, as in Marja, or entrenched power brokers, like President Karzai's brother in Kandahar, who monopolize NATO contracts and other development projects and are resented by large portions of the population.
In still other places, government officials rarely show up at work and do little to help local people, and in most places the Afghan police are incapable of providing security. Corruption, big and small, remains an overwhelming complaint.
Col. Randy George of the Fourth Brigade Combat Team, Fourth Infantry Division, who has responsibility for the four easternmost provinces, tries to build relationships with tribal leaders in most of his territory, at gatherings called shuras, although he has given up ground to the insurgents in some areas.
The strategy inevitably means allowing the insurgents some havens, as long as those are in sparsely populated areas where the insurgents are unlikely to have much impact. Colonel George said he hoped that if he could embolden Afghan citizens to combat corruption in the more populated river valleys and provincial towns in their areas, they would at least create a government they could support, rather than help the insurgents who attack it.
"Part of that is making sure that we are continuing to connect the Afghan people to the Afghan government as a whole, and when you've got a rotten piece of that, the people don't want to connect to it," he said.
JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Nearly a year into a new war strategy for Afghanistan, the hardest fighting is still ahead, but already it is clear that the biggest challenge lies not on the battlefield but in the governing of Afghanistan itself.