Disturbing Developments

It's Not Good News

Regular readers of our blog will know that we believe the US, NZ, and other nations should not be at war in Afghanistan. While not the principal reason, one consideration is that the war is almost impossible to win. The old proverb remains true: discretion is the better part of valour.

Over the past few days we have received reports of five US civilians killed in the eastern province of Khost. It has emerged that these civilians were actually CIA agents. They were involved in "reconstruction"--that is, in non-military attempts to win over local hearts and minds through doing good things. All were members of what has been called the Provincial Reconstruction Team ("PRT"). According to Al Jazeera,

The PRT was established in Afghanistan in 2002 by the US to assist in reconstruction efforts at district and provincial levels.

The US has committed to send hundreds of civilians to support work on development projects that aim to undermine support for the Taliban and other fighters.

But as the security situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated, many of the civilians working outside Kabul have retreated to army bases.

The disturbing nature of these deaths, however, is that they appear to have been the work of an Afghan army soldier. According to a report carried by Reuters:

"This deadly attack was carried out by a valorous Afghan army member," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said no Afghan soldiers were involved in the attack and said none were stationed at the site of the attack in southeastern Khost province.

But if the bomber does prove to be from the army, it would mark the second deadly attack in three days on foreign troops and officials by the soldiers they are meant to be mentoring.

This is not an isolated incident:

An Afghan soldier killed a U.S. service member and wounded two Italian soldiers when he opened fire on foreign troops at an army base in western Afghanistan on Tuesday.

A string of such killings have cast a shadow over Western plans to bolster the Afghan army and police to allow them to eventually bring their own troops back home.

Infiltrating the Afghan army has now become an important front and tactic for the Taliban. We have no doubt that it will undermine substantially the US attempts to "build up" Afghan institutions.

Washington has pledged a "civilian surge," adding hundreds of U.S. experts to support work on development projects that aim to undermine support for the Taliban and other insurgents.

We doubt that the "civilian surge" will ever take place. It will prove too deadly and dangerous. Nation building in Afghanistan will end up a disgraced military doctrine.