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A "peacekeeping" mission goes wrong

Hasan Suroor

Britain's post-9/11 campaign in Afghanistan, meant to be a largely peaceful one, is turning into a full-scale war.

NEARLY FIVE years after Afghanistan was thought to have been "sorted out," in British Prime Minister Tony Blair's words, with the ouster of the hated Taliban regime and installation of the pro-West government of President Hamid Karzai, Kabul has forced itself back on the Western agenda following a renewed and unexpectedly vicious Taliban offensive against coalition forces.

It is an indication of how bad the situation has become in recent weeks that of the 12 British soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001, five have died in just the past three weeks — four of them last week alone. And the leader of the British army in Afghanistan, Brigadier Ed Butler, has warned that more troops are likely to be killed.

There is alarm in London over the sudden escalation of violence in what is seen as a double whammy for Mr. Blair who is already under enormous pressure over the continuing mess in Iraq. Questions are being asked about the precise objective of the British troops in Afghanistan and there is talk of an Iraq-like "mission creep" just when the sense was that the battle had been mostly won and what had remained of the Taliban fighters were merely "remnants."

As a report in The Guardian noted: "Until recently, Western generals in Afghanistan spoke frequently of Taliban `remnants,' suggesting the scrappy remains of a vanquished army. The former Taliban Minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, chimed in, writing off the militants as a `spent force.' Today such talk has evaporated."

Indeed, Britain's Defence Secretary John Reid until recently was so optimistic about the situation in Afghanistan that he virtually ruled out a combat role for British troops saying they would only assist Afghan authorities in destroying the poppy crop. Although the stated mission of the 3,300 British troops continues to be facilitating reconstruction of the war-ravaged country and helping the Afghan government in its anti-narcotics campaign the reality on the ground is rather different. What was meant to be a largely peacekeeping and peaceful campaign is turning into a full-scale war prompting calls for extra combat troops to be sent to Afghanistan. There are fears that British forces might get bogged down in a long drawn-out campaign belying hopes of an early exit.

Defence Secretary Des Browne has refused, despite persistent questioning, to confirm whether the troops would be out of Afghanistan over the next three years, as originally expected. This has given rise to speculation that unless — contrary to all indications — the situation improves dramatically in the next few weeks the Government might be forced to abandon its previous time-table for withdrawal and settle for an "open-ended" strategy.

Analysts blame the crisis on the "confused" objectives of the British army in Afghanistan — namely winning the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghans while at the same time helping with the government's anti- narcotics campaign which effectively means depriving people of their main source of income without offering them any alternative means.

In Helmand province, which is said to be the largest single source of opium in Afghanistan, British troops are mostly engaged in counter-narcotics operations inevitably bringing them into conflict with the local population on the one hand and those engaged in opium trade on the other.

Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said that British troops had been dragged into a war because of the "difficult" objectives they were expected to achieve. "They are... very difficult objectives because they have to win the hearts and minds of the local population while at the same time removing their main source of income... Unless it can be shown to the people in Afghanistan that there's an alternative future to growing opium and being with the Taliban... we are not going to succeed."

A former army officer said the whole strategy was flawed. "When I was instructing at the [military] staff college, if a student had presented me with this plan for Afghanistan, I would have failed him and failed him comprehensively," Patrick Mercer, a former infantry officer and now the Conservative security spokesman, told the BBC calling for a clearer explanation of British troops' long-term objectives in Afghanistan.

Parliament's cross-party Foreign Affairs Select Committee, chaired by Labour MP Mike Gapes, also called for an "urgent statement" from the Government about the army's mission in Afghanistan. There has been criticism of the quality of intelligence that prompted the original "peacekeeping-only" strategy, and questions are being raised about Pakistan's role in the way Taliban militants have been able to launch themselves again.

Meanwhile, of the two British soldiers who died in Afghanistan last week, one was a 24-year-old Pakistani-born British Muslim, Jabron Hashmi. His identity has been front-page news in the national media and coming on the eve of the first anniversary of London bombings — perpetrated by British Muslims of Pakistani origin — his sacrifice for his adopted country has helped restore a sense of honour among Britain's 1.6 million strong Muslim community.

"Many on the far Right were quick to try to label all British Muslims as fifth columnists because of the actions of four men last July. We hope that people realise through the unfortunate death of Hashmi that Muslims are part of the British army and are giving up their lives as part of that army," Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain said as a poll in The Times showed that 65 per cent of Muslims believed that the community needed to do more to integrate with British society.

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