Kandahar not secure, former RC-South commander says
Published: December 14, 2009
While the momentum in southern Afghanistan has shifted, the key city of Kandahar is not secure, the former NATO commander for Regional Command-South said.
Dutch Maj. Gen. Mart de Kruif, in a press conference with reporters today, called Kandahar city “absolutely vital ground” in how successful NATO efforts will be seen by local citizens. But asked about the situation in the city, he said emphatically, “It’s not secure.”
“If you really focus on Kandahar city itself, you will find that within Kandahar city, there is a kind of equilibrium – a kind of balance of power between criminals, tribes, [and] economic power brokers,” de Kruif said. “And just pouring in huge amount of coalition forces, which a counterinsurgency doctrine would actually force you to do, will not have a positive effect. I think we’ve passed that stage.”
De Kruif argued that the way to improve security in Kandahar is to mentor the Afghan security troops and police who are in the lead there and control the approaches to the city. He also recommended that coalition forces go to insurgent safe-havens outside the city from where the insurgents project power, such as Marjeh -- a Taliban stronghold that has been compared to Iraq’s Fallujah back in 2004.
“There is a clear link between Marjeh and Kandahar city,” de Kruif said, adding that the city sits on several key lines of communication into Helmand Province. “But Marjeh is not Fallujah in a way that it has that symbolic meaning that Fallujah had; that’s one, and secondly the whole infrastructure is different than Fallujah – it is not as densely populated.”
Still, de Kruif acknowledged that taking Marjeh will be a difficult fight.
“I think knowing the insurgency and the way they operate over the last couple of years, I think you will see some heavy kinetic fighting there,” he said. “But at the end of the day, you will see a tendency that once the insurgents realize that we are going to stay and that we are going to have success in Marjeh, they will probably blend in with the local population or move somewhere else.”
PHOTO: DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
