Small Wars Journal

Marine Commander in Southwest Afghanistan Strikes Optimistic Tone on Progress in Fight Against Taliban

Fri, 04/06/2018 - 8:51am

Marine Commander in Southwest Afghanistan Strikes Optimistic Tone on Progress in Fight Against Taliban by John Grady – U.S. Naval Institute News

A recently returned U.S. commander in Afghanistan gave an optimistic assessment of the combined progress of U.S. and Afghan forces against the Taliban.

Newly-installed provincial leaders fixed on bringing the Taliban to heel and the coalition commitment to provide assistance in changing the situation on the ground, the Marine Brig. Gen. Roger Turner Jr. who commanded Task Force Southwest said on Friday at the Brookings Institution.

The new provincial leadership was unwilling to accept the status quo of impassable roads, closed airports and the Taliban’s proclamation in 2017 to make Lashkar Gah, the capital of a new Islamic caliphate.

“We’re seeing great success in Helmand in the last year,” he said.

About half of the 300 Marines that he commanded in Helmand were assigned train and assist mission; the other half included rifle and artillery units that supported Afghan operations.

The Afghan forces know they can operate more professionally than the Taliban, giving the police and the army more confidence in what they were assigned, Turner said. The evidence of improvement is showing up in lower casualty rates and drops in desertion.

The result is dramatic: changing demoralized security forces into troops and national police operating with skill.

“Afghan forces, if properly enabled, will defeat the Taliban at the point of attack,” he said…

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