In Marja: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way
In Marja: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way
by Colonel Gary Anderson
Download the full article: In Marja: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way
It never ceases to amaze me how quick we are to lecture our Iraqi and Afghan allies on the importance of good governance and interagency operations while blatantly violating many of those principles ourselves. The latest incident of interagency fratricide played out in the Washington Post in an April 13th article by Rajiv Chandrasekaren regarding attempts by U.S. Marines to use innovative methods to reduce the poppy crop in Marja, Afghanistan. In their attempt to reduce a major source of funding for the Taliban in that region, the Marines fell afoul of “anonymous sources” at the Headquarters of the Helmand Province Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT).
It seems that the Marines have been paying local farmers to plow under their land rather than harvest the lucrative poppy crop. The Marines have also been blocking roads to keep out migrant laborers who are brought in to harvest the crop. The farmers seem relatively happy with this arrangement because many of the migrants are reluctant to enter the Marja area anyway because it is still an active combat zone.
Some PRT members chose to become part of the problem rather than part of the solution by taking their gripes to Chandrasekaran rather than by offering constructive alternatives to the poppy problem which they have been unable to come to grips with on their own for years. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. Members of the traditional civilian development community have failed consistently to grasp the basic principles of counterinsurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan for years by adhering to ideas more suited to development work in Togo or Chile than in war zones such as Afghanistan and Iraq.
Download the full article: In Marja: Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way
Gary Anderson is a retired Marine Corps officer. He recently left the State Department after a year-long tour in Iraq as a Senior Governance Advisor with a Provincial Reconstruction Team.
