Afghanistan insurgence growing stronger
By Gregg Zoroya
USA TODAY
11/17/2005
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — U.S. Special Forces soldiers
hunting Taliban and foreign fighters in southern Afghanistan
say they are encountering a fiercer and more organized adversary
than last year, and one that is far from being near collapse
as predicted by an American general in April.
The commander and officers of the 1st Battalion,
3rd Special Forces Group — an elite counterinsurgency
unit known as the Desert Eagles — provided the assessment
in a recent video-teleconference briefing here with USA TODAY
from battalion headquarters in Kandahar.
The report calls into question plans to replace
most, if not all, U.S. forces in the volatile south next year
with NATO troops that will not conduct the same aggressive counterinsurgency
operations.
The troubling unrest in a country that held successful
elections and appeared to have quelled the insurgency comes
amid heightened concern in Washington over the conflict in Iraq,
which is overshadowing Afghanistan.
In April, Army Lt. Gen. David Barno, then senior
U.S. commander in Afghanistan, predicted the insurgency would
largely collapse within about a year. But this year has been
the bloodiest since the 2001 invasion for the 18,000 U.S. forces.
In 2005, 87 U.S. troops have died, nearly half the 186 killed
since the war began. In July, 19 Americans died when insurgents
downed a U.S. helicopter searching for four Navy SEALs in eastern
Afghanistan. Three SEALs were killed.
Afghan officials say much fighting remains to
be done. "Our concern is that whoever takes over those
areas will have to engage in counterinsurgency," says Ashraf
Haidari, an Afghan Embassy spokesman in Washington. Insurgent
violence "has increased since last year, and we expect
more terrorist attacks."
Wednesday, Afghan Defense Minister Rahim Wardak
told the Associated Press that terrorist attacks now resemble
the violence in Iraq. This week, three suicide bombings in Kabul,
the capital, killed 10 people, including a U.S. soldier and
a German peacekeeper.
Lt. Col. Donald Bolduc, commander of the Desert
Eagles, said in the October briefing that guerrilla fighting
has gained strength since last year. The unit is on its fourth
tour. "The guys would tell you that this is a different
enemy than they saw before," he said.
American and Afghan forces have prevailed in battle,
but Bolduc warned: "If we leave here before we have trained
an effective Afghan national security force that's where the
insurgency will probably have a pretty successful go at turning
the tide."
NATO spokesman James Appathurai says U.S. forces
in the south will be "significantly reduced" next
year. The alliance's rules of engagement "mean active and
robust defense. But it doesn't mean offensive, long-term operations,"
he says.
Retired U.S. general Barry McCaffrey, who toured
Afghanistan in August, is concerned. "NATO forces are in
most cases going to be thin gruel compared to the U.S. (forces)
they will replace," he says.
