Inside the Kandahar jailbreak

Herschel Smith at Captain's Journal takes an extensive look at the failures that led to the jailbreak and find the Canadian's were not taking care of their Area of Operation.

... The fault was with the Afghan police and ISAF forces, we surmised. We posed the question(s):

Where was the force protection? Where were the vehicle barriers (you know, those mechanically operated devices that flatten your tires if you go over them the wrong way)? Where were the concrete truck barricades? Where was the training? Where was the supervision? Forget expensive UAVs and road construction for a minute. What about spending a little money on teaching the Afghan police about combat and force protection. Failure to do so has cost us the freedom of 400 Taliban - and potentially U.S. lives to capture or kill them again.

Many of these questions have been answered in a recent Globe and Mail article entitled Inside the Taliban Jailbreak. Read carefully near the end of the citation below to see just how the Canadians have approached management of this prison.

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But even with the wild card of the Afghan police, the event never had to occur - or at least, it could have been mitigated. The Canadian military made the same mistake seen in the early phases of Operation Iraqi Freedom. For much of the campaign in Iraq the byline was to stand down when the Iraqis stood up. Security was not assumed to be the precondition for the construction of institutional infrastructure. Rather, the assumption was that the institutional infrastructure was there to begin with, and the mission is to assist it.

Of course, this is wrongheaded, but seeing the results of such an assumption (the prison break) won’t even allow mission creep, much less a complete revisiting of the doctrine brought to the theater. There is an intransigence in NATO that refuses to allow a consistent or comprehensive strategy. This will consume the nighttime thoughts of General Petraeus for months into the future.

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There is much more in this thoughtful piece. Someone has to take ownership of the problem and it is better that that someone be competent. The Canadians have done a good job of taking on the Taliban. They need to do a better job of helping the Afghans stand up to the enemy. That is the quickest route home.

Hat tip Larwyn.