“Saliency” is not just a military thing. There are reconstruction and development implications as well. Any sizable American force deploying to Kandahar province brings with it an “integrated development capability,” a polite way of saying “lots and lots of money.” Each American local commander has a Commanders Emergency Response Program fund to spend on development initiatives. American brigades will have a civil affairs company—or in some cases a whole battalion—attached with even more resources. USAID representatives, integrated into American units—unlike the Canadian International Development Agency, which resists co-operation with the Canadian military—will bring even more resources to bear. Then there may be something like our oft-discussed Provincial Reconstruction Team, but operating at the district and community level. Again, Canada has no equivalent.
Being flooded with American military and reconstruction resources poses problems for Canada in the governance realm at the provincial level. Influence in Afghanistan is based on what one brings to the table. Will Canada be able to maintain the same level of influence with the Kandahar power structure once American money begins to flow and contracts are let to Afghan companies to support American activities? The American influx will at the very least dramatically alter the economic dynamics of the province, and the region. Job creation means, ultimately, fewer insurgents, if it is handled properly.
This situation is being played out on a much larger scale in the country. From late 2006, when ISAF assumed control of the bulk of the Western effort in Afghanistan, to the present, ISAF has ruled the roost, with some 20,000 troops in 2006 growing to 51,000 in 2008. There are now 58,000 ISAF troops, of which 26,000 are American. There is also the non-ISAF, American-led Operation Enduring Freedom, which boasts 14,000 U.S. troops. The 2008-09 influx will deposit up to 30,000 more American “boots on the ground,” to be split between the two commands. In other words, U.S. forces will outnumber the combined non-American forces by three or four times. It is looking like the pre-2006 days, where ISAF ran one war, and Operation Enduring Freedom ran another. The bulk of new American forces will deploy to the volatile Regional Commands East and South.
The numbers don’t tell the whole story, however. Canada has deployed between 1,000 and 3,000 troops, at various times and in various configurations throughout the Afghanistan war. Canada has accomplished a lot with our comparatively modestly sized force since 2001. Our prestige is based on what we have done with our forces, our willingness to run risks that others would not, and it is based on the casualties we have taken.
The list of accomplishments includes: assisting in the destruction of al-Qaeda’s training, command, and research infrastructure in Afghanistan (2001-02); the denial of Afghanistan as a safe haven for global terrorism (2001-today); the prevention of another Afghan civil war (2003-04); the disarming and conversion of Afghan militia forces into national security forces (2003-today); protecting national and provincial elections (2004-05); mentoring the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (2005-06); the defence of Kandahar city and its surrounding districts (2006-today); and contributing to the destruction of the enemy leadership throughout southern Afghanistan (2005-today). All of these accomplishments were achieved through the creative use of sparse resources, by Canadian soldiers using their initiative when others would not and by working closely with allies, particularly the Americans.
There is no doubt our joint efforts are having an effect. The insurgents do not like the presence of 2-2 Infantry and the Canadian guns in Maywand district one bit. After a flurry of IED attacks, the enemy has lost any momentum they had along the vital Highway 1 corridor. Lt.-Col. Hurlbut established an outpost on the boundary between Maywand and Zharey districts—its presence has seriously interfered with the flow of enemy weapons and personnel into the Canadian and Afghan operating areas, so much so that insurgent cells constantly complain to their superiors in Pakistan about their lack of resources.
For the third year in a row, the Taliban and their allies remain incapable of mounting large 2006-style conventional attacks in the western districts, let alone into Kandahar city, and are focusing on more classic insurgent methods to control the population, such as community-level intimidation, or on planning more “spectaculars” like the Sarposa prison assault and prisoner breakout of 2008. In Maywand, the insurgents have for the most part decamped. Or, as Hurlbut explained, “The bad guys moved out and now are all in Pakistan, which gives us time to focus on governance and development.” Hopefully, this is the shape of things to come—if the coalition can figure out what to do about the insurgent engine inside Pakistan.
Sean M. Maloney is a professor of history at the Royal Military College of Canada and has travelled to Afghanistan regularly since 2003. The author of the upcoming Confronting the Chaos: A Rogue Historian Returns to Afghanistan, he is currently writing a history of Canada’s war in Afghanistan.
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