Brits run into more resistance than Marines in Helmand

NY Times:

The new American commander in Afghanistan said Wednesday that United States Marines had faced less resistance than expected in their operation to clear Taliban safe havens in the south, but that British troops just to the north were running into fiercer fighting than anticipated.

The commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, also said that he was surprised by the resilience of pockets of Pashtun militants in western and northern Afghanistan, areas that he expected to be relatively calm but that now needed more troops and stronger local governance.

General McChrystal’s assessment one month into his command does not only reflect the dynamic and unpredictable nature of the fight in Afghanistan. It also underscores the challenges facing American commanders and diplomats as they work with allied and Afghan officials to carry out the Obama administration’s new war strategy here.

In the pivotal southern province of Helmand, for instance, where 4,000 Marines and 650 Afghan soldiers faced only sporadic fighting in the first two weeks of their operation, General McChrystal said, Taliban fighters were starting to fight back, probing with small-scale attacks and improvised explosives.

“They’re coming back and nipping at the edges,” he said in a 40-minute interview on the wood-deck patio outside his heavily guarded headquarters here. “They’re waiting to see what happens.”

American commanders had predicted a sharp rise in casualties as United States troop levels rose toward the 68,000 planned by year-end. General McChrystal warned against expecting any quick end to the combat in the south, the Taliban heartland.

“I think we’re talking months for this to play out, and it’ll play out at a little different speed everywhere,” the general said. “Until we hit the point where the insurgent fighters decide they cannot force us out or cannot discourage us, I think they’re likely to stay significantly.”

General McChrystal said the operation’s next stage would be to expand to other important towns in the southern Helmand River valley, to clear out militants there, and hold the reclaimed ground until Afghan civilian authorities and officials could take charge.

But moving into these new areas will require more Afghan police officers and soldiers than are currently expected to be available, General McChrystal said. As part of a 60-day mission review, the general said he would recommend expanding the Afghan Army, now scheduled to increase to 134,000 troops. He said he would also seek to speed the process to do that before the scheduled completion date of 2011.

“The key to this is Afghan responsibility to the fight,” he said. “As a team, we are better.”

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Pockets of Pashtun insurgents are stirring up trouble near Kunduz, in northern Afghanistan, where German troops patrol, and in Farah Province, in the western part of the country, where Italian soldiers are assigned.

One senior American military officer here, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said Kandahar, the country’s second largest city, was “under stress” from Taliban fighters.

Aides said General McChrystal was seeking to bring to his new position the same high-speed tempo and precise synchronization that were hallmarks of his terrorist-hunting days as head of the military’s Joint Special Operations Command.

But problems still need ironing out. “We lack coordination as an organization,” the senior military official said. “We’ve been fighting five regional fights. We haven’t been fighting one war.”

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There is more.

It appears to me that the Taliban are focusing on what they perceive as NATO's weak links and they include the Brits in that category. These NATO elements have lacked the consistent aggressiveness of the Marines who kicked serious butt last year when they were turned loose near the Garmsir area of Helmand. Even when they were out numbered they were able to destroy the Taliban forces that had the temerity to fight them.

They will avoid contact with the Marines, particularly with their better forces that they fear losing. It is an example of how competent aggressive forces can be more effective than the slow and deliberate approach used by much of the NATO mission.