open Democracy News Analysis - Treading softly in Afghanistan, Marcus Skinner - Comments

RCFrancais on "Treading softly in Afghanistan"

RCFrancais — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:17:31 +0100

Of course, it's important to save lives and provide economic security, health, education, etc. But you're misunderstanding what Jackman is saying: certain cultural attitudes prevail in parts of the country that the Taliban are heavily active in, and the Taliban are taking advantage of those to build resentment against the coalition forces; so you can't let the Taliban get away with that - you have to undermine their support amongst the people, and that begins with the people themselves.

nick_myst on "Treading softly in Afghanistan"

nick_myst — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 15:10:49 +0100

How can troops actually understand or deal with culture without simplifying it, and thereby misrepresenting its significance? I think you need to protect civilian lives FIRST, not second, then provide material benefits. Culture is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things in such conflicts: people just want to be safe and provided for.

Treading softly in Afghanistan, Marcus Skinner

KVB Tharoor — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 15:43:05 +0100

Afghanistan is currently experiencing a resurgence of insurgent activity in the south and east of the country. Recently the violence has also spread to provinces traditionally considered "stable". In May, a suicide attack killed three German soldiers in the northern province of Kunduz, thousands of miles from the Taliban strongholds in Kandahar.

To date, the international response to the violence in Afghanistan has been overwhelmingly military, contrary to the best practice taught by theorists of counter-insurgency.

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