StormWarning’s Counterterrorism

Somehow there remain doubts that Afghanistan is backsliding…NATO still claims that its all “hunky dorry” there.  Previous reports have shown that the Taliban has re(over)taken large swaths of geography…a new report now indicates that major infrastructure projects have been set back because of the Taliban resurgence.

The past year has been the deadliest for U.S. and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime fell in late 2001. But while the number of suicide bomb attacks and civilian deaths has risen, perhaps the most disconcerting development is that the violence has set back major reconstruction projects aimed at significantly improving the lives of millions of Afghans.

Of more than 14,000 reconstruction works under way, NATO officials have described the Kajaki hydroelectric dam in Helmand Province as the project with the most strategic and psychological significance. NATO announced in early 2007 that its key objective in the south was to secure the area around the Kajaki dam.

● In March, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer even suggested that progress on security in Afghanistan in 2007 could be measured by NATO’s ability to keep Taliban fighters away from Kajak.

● despite NATO’s declarations of battlefield success, Taliban fighters have been able reinfiltrate the area — causing enough havoc to delay construction of the road meant to link Kajaki to the town of Gereshk. By late November, the road still was not complete. Without the road, workers have not been able to transport the power turbine to Kajaki — leaving British and U.S. forces unable to claim success on that key objective of 2007.

The White House recently acknowledged that strategic goals for 2007 would not be achieved…White House - “Limited Progress” in Deteriorating Afghan War (and perhaps read some of the rest of the posts linked to that one).

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Kajak, NATO