Some five decades ago, U.S. engineers went into the desert of Helmand to build irrigation canals. These canals brought water down from the bend of the Helmand River, turning a patch of desert into a city that is truly a sprawling series of villages in a lush land for farming. Decades later, Marja would be overrun by a resurgent Taliban and its farming community turned into the backbone of their insurgency; it became not only a key logistics hub for the insurgents, but more importantly the center of opium production.
The fighting in Marja has essentially ended. NATO and the Pentagon is not as eager as they had been in the past to publish the total number of dead or captured insurgents from Operation Moshtarak, which just goes to show why this campaign was different.
This wasn't Fallujah, Iraq. Hundreds if not thousands of civilians did not die. Nearly a hundred U.S. and allied personnel did not die. Of course, far more civilians and troops died than we would have liked. General McChrystal may not have been quick to celebrate the number of enemy dead or captured, but he was quick to offer swift apologies whenever something went wrong and resulted in the death of civilians. Now that the gunfire has ended, the task of rebuilding and progressing must begin.
Decades ago we built canals that turned a wasteland into a farmland. This time, the task is far broader.
(LA Times)
A group of U.S., British and Danish reconstruction specialists have devised a multimillion-dollar plan for Marja that includes reopening schools and health clinics, installing solar lighting in the bazaars, repairing culverts and streets, and offering cleanup jobs for the many unemployed, from whom the Taliban was able to find willing recruits. The three governments are contributing money.
Later on, the plan calls for building police stations and small hydroelectric pumps and offering microloans to farmers and merchants.
(so good to see the Danes helping. hopefully no one will put them in charge of cartoons)
The story is worth a read. In a sign that some people are thinking ahead, three residents of Marja were identified as obstacles to reconstruction and are being monitored. A former police official is amongst them, and if anyone here knows the stories about the police in Marja before the Taliban came back, they can probably assume that he was a jackass to the residents and in general. No former Marja police officers are being allowed to return to the force. Their conduct was considered a primary reason for the residents' initial rewelcoming of the Taliban. The three identified residents are said to have been linked to the opium trade.
Speaking of which, it's that time of year when farmers get their seeds ready to plant;
The recent rains have left the fields green and lush. Farming, including crops of poppies that turn into heroin, is the dominant industry here, helped by irrigation canals built by the U.S. government in the 1950s.
A plan has already been cobbled together to offer wheat seeds and fertilizer to farmers in an attempt to break the farmers away from planting poppies.
Time is of the essence on this one. But I think it'll also be important to see if anything other than wheat, such as fruits, are being grown in this area as well as wheat. Marja used to be famous for pomegranates.
As for life in general in Marja, there are residents coming back and businesses reopening. All well and good. A permanent police force, supposedly being built to avoid the mistakes of the past, is being built. Members of a new police unit are in Marja and they are supposedly as free of corruption as we could hope; we'll see what the heck that actually means not weeks from now, but months from now when everyone is discussing the fighting in neighboring Kandahar province and distracted from Marja.
As Nicholson and Mattis, who is commander of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, met a variety of Afghan leaders, soldiers, police and common residents, the emphasis Saturday was on remembering those killed in the battle.
"I'm sorry for the Marines you lost," Zahir(new district governor) said. "We will pray for them."
We'll see how the new mayor of Marja adjusts to life back in Afghanistan. He may be a carpet bagger, but hey, at least he's probably not connected to the opium trade.
The battle for Marja is over. The battle for Marja has just begun. I'll do follow-up reports every so often on the region to see just how the new fight to win hearts and minds is actually going.