[Senate Hearing 111-624]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
S. Hrg. 111-624
THE MEANING OF MARJAH
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
MAY 6, 2010
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut RICHARD G. LUGAR, Indiana
RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin BOB CORKER, Tennessee
BARBARA BOXER, California JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia
ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey JAMES E. RISCH, Idaho
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland JIM DeMINT, South Carolina
ROBERT P. CASEY, Jr., Pennsylvania JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming
JIM WEBB, Virginia ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi
JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma
EDWARD E. KAUFMAN, Delaware
KIRSTEN E. GILLIBRAND, New York
Frank G. Lowenstein, Staff Director
Kenneth A. Myers, Jr., Republican Staff Director
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Kerry, Hon. John F., U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, opening
statement...................................................... 1
Nicholson, BG John, Director, Pakistan-Afghanistan Coordination
Cell, Joint Staff, Department of Defense, Washington, DC....... 3
Prepared joint statement of BG John Nicholson and David
Samuel Sedney, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia..................... 6
Ruggiero, Frank, Senior Civilian Representative, Regional
Command-South, Department of State, Kandahar, Afghanistan...... 9
Prepared statement........................................... 10
Additional Questions and Answers Submitted for the Record
Responses of BG John Nicholson to questions submitted by:
Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr.................................. 41
Senator John Barrasso........................................ 43
(iii)
THE MEANING OF MARJAH
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THURSDAY, MAY 6, 2010
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Foreign Relations,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:32 a.m., in
room SD-419, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. John Kerry
(chairman of the committee) presiding.
Present: Senators Kerry, Lugar, Kaufman, Shaheen, Feingold,
Cardin, and Risch.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN KERRY,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS
The Chairman. The hearing will come to order. Thank you
very, very much for coming today. I am particularly grateful to
our witnesses who have traveled considerable distance at one
time or another with respect to both this hearing and the
experience that they bring to the table.
Last year, as we all know, the administration faced some
very tough choices with respect to Afghanistan and Pakistan,
and we explored all those options in considerable depth here
within the committee; and today we want to try to exercise the
oversight obligations of the committee and the Congress to
examine the impact of those decisions. How have those decisions
turned out? Where are we today, and where are we going?
This is the first congressional hearing on our mission in
Marjah. Before our offensive began there in February, this
small village in Southern Afghanistan was unknown to most of
the outside world and perhaps even to an awful lot of Afghans.
Today, it has become the leading edge of the administration's
new strategy; though by the administration's own
acknowledgement, it's really a testing ground and a sort of
start to what we all understand is a larger effort that will
ultimately take place in Kandahar itself.
Marjah is the site of the largest coalition offensive since
2001, the first major combat operation since the President
unveiled the new strategy in December, and that's why the
meaning of our efforts there merits some examination.
Today, Marjah does not appear to be a turning point in the
overall mission. That is not to suggest it was absolutely meant
to be. But it is not. Although the outcome in military terms
was never in doubt, our Marines and their NATO and Afghan
partners performed heroically and we honor them and thank them
profoundly for the sacrifices they made and for the
extraordinary quality of their service.
Marjah also is not a great Afghan city, like Kabul, Heart,
or Kandahar; but Marjah and neighboring Nadali do have
strategic and symbolic importance. Marjah was the last Taliban
stronghold in the Central Helmand River Valley and it was the
poppy production hub of Afghanistan and the world. So
establishing long-term security there and developing a
legitimate economy in Helmand province would significantly
undercut our enemies and help our overall effort.
I think it's fair to say, and I think our witnesses will
say--incidentally we're not going to go into any in-depth
discussion today about Kandahar, sort of off limits basically
for all the obvious reasons that clearly the challenges in a
big city like Kandahar are going to differ dramatically from
the challenges of Marjah. But, nevertheless, what we did face
in Marjah represents something of strategic and symbolic
importance.
First, it was the last Taliban stronghold in the Central
Helmand River Valley and, as I mentioned, the poppy production
hub. So establishing a long-term security capacity there and
developing a legitimate economy is critical.
We are looking now for better cooperation within our
integrated civilian-military effort, and between the coalition
forces and all levels of the Afghan Government; and those are
going to be vital as the mission moves beyond Marjah.
It is encouraging that Afghan security forces and Gov.
Gulab Mangal of Helmand province were involved in the planning
and execution of that offensive; and soon after the major
fighting ended, President Hamid Karzai visited Marjah and
signaled his commitment to a new beginning there.
So let's look quickly at, sort of, at least from our
perspective, what this new start may have brought us. There are
indications that we are making progress. United States forces
have embarked on a robust effort to help Afghans clear rubble
from schools, clean canals, repair markets, build bridges, and
compensate families who lost members as a result of combat.
On the civilian side, we are starting to put locals to
work. We're providing agriculture vouchers to wean farmers from
poppy production and, though the officials there continue to
face threats from the Taliban and those threats do constrain
their movements, with our help, a local Afghan Government is in
place in Marjah for the first time in years.
So we are finally changing the way we do business, but--and
I think our panel would agree with this--unless these changes
resonate with Afghans, they're not going to be enough. The
ultimate measure of our success is going to be whether we can
win the trust of the Afghan people and transfer security and
governance to them.
Our challenge was never just to clear the territory. It has
always been to hold it, to build it, and then to transfer it. I
think transfer is probably the single most critical element of
all: transferring that territory, its control and management
back to our Afghan partners.
Now, on the negative side, unfortunately, the initial word
from hundreds of villagers in Marjah suggests the full measure
of our challenge. A recent survey conducted by the
International Council on Security and Development showed that a
vast majority of the villagers felt negatively about foreign
troops and felt that more young Afghans had joined the Taliban
over the last year.
Worse still, were the reasons that they had signed up with
the Taliban. They said they joined because they had no jobs,
because they had no money to get married or to buy land, and
because they had no other future.
In short, the coalition and their own government, they
felt, had not provided alternatives. These concerns have to
carry weight. Addressing the discontent of the Afghan people is
a key to improving our chances of defeating the Taliban and its
affiliates, or at least, if not defeating it--I always want to
be careful about how we define our goals here--at least to
empowering the Government of Afghanistan, local and national,
to be able to carry the weight of this struggle.
I look forward, therefore, to discussing these and other
issues with President Karzai during his visit to Washington
next week. It's clear we still have a formidable task ahead of
us in Afghanistan. We are very fortunate to have with us as
witnesses who can speak directly to that; folks who have had a
lot of on-the-ground, firsthand, lengthy, in-depth experience
in this effort.
Frank Ruggiero is the top American civilian official in
southern Afghanistan where he coordinates our governance,
development, and reconstruction projects, and I've just learned
will be coming soon to Washington to serve as the Deputy to
Ambassador Holbrooke.
Mr. Ruggiero, I especially want to thank you for coming
here today to do this and I know you're going back afterward,
and we are enormously grateful to you for that and the work you
have done there.
We're also pleased to welcome BG John Nicholson, the
Director of the Pakistan-Afghanistan Coordination Cell for the
Joint Chiefs of Staff. Until just a few months ago, General
Nicholson was helping to lead the military campaign in southern
Afghanistan.
I had the pleasure of meeting him there, I appreciate the
insightful briefing that he gave us last year on our flight to
Zabul, and I look forward to hearing his thoughts again today.
And also joining them at the table is David Sedney, the Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
So again, I remind folks we are not going to be examining
this morning any of the details of the upcoming efforts in
Kandahar, but I think there is a lot of meat to digest,
notwithstanding that. So we thank you for coming here.
General Nicholson first and then Ambassador Ruggiero and
Mr. Sedney.
STATEMENT OF BG JOHN NICHOLSON, DIRECTOR, PAKISTAN-AFGHANISTAN
COORDINATION CELL, JOINT STAFF, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE,
WASHINGTON, DC
General Nicholson. Well, thank you, Senator Kerry, and
thanks for the opportunity to come here and discuss these
important operations in southern Afghanistan.
I also want to thank you, sir, for your continued support
to our service men and women and our civilian partners in
Afghanistan. They're doing a very tough job in the most
difficult conditions and thank you for your personal visits to
them, to visit them in that environment.
And although I've been back, as you mentioned, for a few
months, I appreciate the opportunity to appear here with my
former civilian counterpart from Regional Command-South, Frank
Ruggiero.
When I arrived in RC-South in October 2008, there were a
total of 10 U.S. Government civilians in the entire southern
region. There are now over a hundred and that number is
growing. More importantly, Frank represents the creation of the
Senior Civilian Rep position which has enabled a greater unity
of effort between the civil and military efforts, so greater
integration in the execution of our campaign in RC-South.
So what I'd like to do is just make a few opening comments
on the context of Marjah in terms of its importance within
Helmand, within the southern region, and then within
Afghanistan overall, and then also to talk a little bit about
counterinsurgency from a practitioner's perspective which will
also help our understanding of what's happening in Central
Helmand.
So when we look at it in the context of those areas, as you
know, sir, most of our effort in the ISAF Campaign is focused
in the eastern and southern regions of the country where most
of the support for the insurgency exists.
In the southern region, our allies have done a tremendous
amount of heavy lifting for the coalitions, 17 different
nations. Some of those nations have suffered a higher
percentage of casualties than the United States. Given that
this is a population-focused Coin Campaign, when we look at the
south then, we look at two primary areas which you mentioned,
sir, the Kandahar, Greater Kandahar Area, and Central Helmand,
and by securing the population in those two areas, we in fact
secure the majority of the population in southern Afghanistan.
Southern Afghanistan, by securing that population and
helping to connect them to their government and generate
support for the government from that population, we in fact
then get at the majority of the Pashtun Tribal Areas which is
instrumental to the overall solution in Afghanistan.
Talking about the specific Helmand area, in close
cooperation with our British allies who have been in Helmand
since 2006, we began our operations there really in the spring
of 2008 with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, commanded by
Col. Pete Petronzio, went into Garmsir in the spring of 2008,
cleared it of the enemy, and we've been in a hold-build since
that time.
In July 2009, with the initial tranch of troops approved by
President Obama, 1,095 Marines, as part of the Marine
Expeditionary Brigade-Afghanistan, went into the Naway District
which is just north of Garmsir and cleared that, and we've
again had troops along with Afghan partners in that area since
that time.
This enabled the British forces in Helmand to concentrate
their efforts in some of the areas north of Garmsir and Naway
to do a clearing operation simultaneously with our ops last
summer into the Lashkar Gah Boba-G area.
The point of all this explanation, sir, is that we've
concentrated, we've cleared systematically over the course of
the last 2 years, some of the key and most densely populated
areas resulting in this remaining enemy sanctuary and this
remaining narcotrafficking sanctuary in the area of Marjah.
So with President Obama's approval of the additional forces
in December, we were able to go in and finally clear the Marjah
area and this then gets at the majority of the most densely
populated areas in Central Helmand. So from the District of
Garmsir in the south all the way up to Gereshk and then with
our British partners in Sangin to the north we now have ISAF
and Gyroa forces in the majority of Central Helmand.
I would also mention concurrent with this has been the
approved and funded growth of the Afghan National Security
Forces. So we are seeing this year in 2010 the additional
creation of an Afghan Corps that will be headquartered in
Helmand. So whereas our operations last summer were conducted
with a single brigade of the Afghan National Army, over the
course of 2010 we will grow a three-brigade corps of the Afghan
Army in the Helmand and Nimruse provinces. So there's a growth
that's occurred, as well.
Additionally, Afghan National Civil Order Police were
dispatched to the area to assist in the effort and that has
enabled us to take the police that were in Marjah for
retraining and then a reintroduction eventually into the Marjah
area to address one of the principal issues we've had there
which is that connection between the government and the
population.
Sir, what I'd like to do is just briefly mention the
narcotics issue and you mentioned it in your opening comments,
sir. As we know, Afghanistan produces over 90 percent of the
world's opium. A majority of that is grown, is cultivated in
the southern region, and Helmand has the most densely
cultivated areas of poppy growth in the southern region.
By virtue of securing the population in RC-South, we de
facto are also in many of the poppy-producing areas. What we
have found is, through the Jirga Programs, spearheaded by
Governor Mangal, the Governor of Helmand province, with his
Food Zone Program, in areas that we have been able to provide a
degree of security, he has had greater success with his
counternarcotics program which is designed to help the farmers
transition from poppy to licit agriculture and this does a
couple things for us.
One, it enables the recreation of a self-sustaining licit
economic structure in the south and, two, it undercuts funding
from the growth of opium that goes into the insurgency, and the
United Nations estimates that that is in the amount of several
hundred million dollars a year.
Sir, a word on counterinsurgency from a practitioner's
perspective. I think most folks are aware with the acronym
Shape, Clear, Hold, and Transfer. What I'd like to provide is a
little more granularity to what that means at the practical
level.
So when we talk about the Clear phase of an operation, our
goal is to separate the enemy from the people and this
separation can occur in many ways. There's a physical
separation by killing or capturing or forcing an enemy to flee
or, ideally, though, getting them to reintegrate back into
society would be our real goal, and in the Afghan tradition,
this is a much-respected way of resolving conflicts.
So when we look at the Afghan Government and military
today, you see many former enemies from the Communist era,
former Communists, former mujahideen together in the
government, in the military working together toward a solution.
So reintegration is one of the goals in the clearing phase.
When we shift to the Hold phase, the key task that occurs
in that phase is the connection between the people and their
government and this is not a forgone conclusion in Afghanistan.
They're on their fifth form of government in 30 years. There's
great skepticism about that government. They have in some of
these areas that have been under Taliban control, they have not
seen or interacted with their government. You have some fairly
resilient social forms of governance that have high legitimacy
but no resources.
So when we bring in the government, what we're trying to do
is effect that nexus between a government which has access to
resources but low legitimacy with social forms of governance
which have higher legitimacy but great needs. The creation of a
secure environment enables that nexus to flourish and that is
what we seek to do in that second phase.
And then in the Build phase, if you will, what we're really
talking about is building Afghan capacity toward an eventual
transfer of responsibilities, as you mentioned. So the security
capacity is clearly at the top of that list to enable them to
take over security responsibilities, but also building their
governance capacity and their ability to deliver basic services
to the people.
So that in a nutshell, from a practical perspective, is
what we're after when we talk about Shape, Clear, Hold, and
Build.
The final thing I'd say, sir, is that this is a work in
progress. We're 83 days into the Marjah operation. As I
mentioned, we're seeing positive effects in Garmsir and Naway,
having begun those in the spring of 2008 and the summer of
2009, respectively.
I've seen the same reports initially out of Marjah. My only
comment on that, sir, would be those surveys were probably done
in the early stages of the clearing operation, perhaps in the
30-to-45-day mark, and I'm not surprised to hear there's some
negative feedback as troops are clearing the neighborhood, as
there's kinetic activity going on, and reflecting a condition
that's existed for years previously of low employment and a
desire for basic services.
So we have heard of those concerns and with our operations
ongoing, which we'll talk about more here during the hearing,
we're addressing those concerns.
So again, sir, work in progress but trending in the right
direction and again, sir, thank you for the opportunity and
look forward to the questions.
[The prepared joint statement of Assistant Secretary Sedney
and General Nicholson follows:]
Prepared Joint Statement of David Samuel Sedney, Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia, and BG
John W. Nicholson, Jr., Director, Pakistan Afghanistan Coordination
Cell, the Joint Staff, Department of Defense, Washington, DC
Chairman Kerry, Ranking Member Lugar, and members of the committee,
we're pleased to have this opportunity to give you an update on our
ongoing efforts in Afghanistan. You understand the importance of this
mission, the magnitude of the challenges we face there and the depth of
our commitment to meeting those challenges.
When President Obama took office, we confronted a bleak situation.
Early gains had eroded, the Taliban was reascendant in many parts of
the country, and Afghan confidence in the coalition was in decline.
President Obama ordered an immediate strategy review, and in the course
of that preliminary review we made a number of key changes. The U.S.
Government added 38,000 troops last spring, and NATO appointed General
McChrystal as commander of the International Security Assistance Force
(ISAF). General McChrystal has emphasized the importance of a
counterinsurgency strategy that prioritizes protecting the Afghan
people over killing the enemy.
In his December speech at West Point, the President announced a
number of key refinements to our Afghanistan strategy including the
deployment of additional U.S. Forces. As of April 23, over 15,000 of
the additional 30,000 U.S. troops have deployed to the country. The
remainder will be in place where they are needed by the end of summer
2010, supplemented by over 9,000 additional NATO and non-NATO troops,
over 2,000 more than had been pledged in January 2010. Over 3,000 of
these international troops are in place.
Partnering and improvements in Afghanistan National Security Forces
(ANSF) training are accelerating ANSF growth and improving the quality
of the force, with an emphasis on creating a force that is both
effective and sustainable. Equally important has been the drastically
expanded and overhauled civilian effort. Today there are more than
three times the number of U.S. direct hire civilians in Afghanistan
than there were a year ago, and over four times more civilian personnel
deployed alongside our military personnel on Provincial Reconstruction
Teams (PRTs) and District Support Teams (DSTs) outside of Kabul. As
Secretary Gates notes recently, our State, USAID, and other civilian
partners are critical to our overall military success in Afghanistan.
Our military and civilian missions are integrated, and our military
personnel depend upon their civilian counterparts to help stabilize and
rebuild after the fight.
As we stated in our April 2010 report on ``Progress Toward Security
and Stability in Afghanistan,'' submitted in accordance with section
1230 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008
(Public Law 110-181), the evidence suggests that our shift in approach
has begun to bear fruit, even as significant challenges remain. We
assess that the insurgency's momentum has been blunted. Closer
coordination with President Karzai, the Afghan Government, coalition
allies and those in the region, particularly Pakistan, is paying off as
we see more and more of a common effort.
Due to our change in approach, the percentage of Afghan civilian
casualties caused by coalition actions has dropped substantially. This
improvement has produced significant shifts in Afghan attitudes toward
ISAF and Afghan forces. Compared to a year ago, Afghans today report
that they are far more optimistic about the future and have far more
confidence in our ability to prevail over the Taliban and other violent
extremist forces.
We've seen other positive indicators in the last year, as well. Of
the 121 key terrain districts identified by ISAF in December 2009, 60
were assessed as sympathetic or neutral to the Afghan Government. By
March 2010, that number had climbed to 73 districts. Although
Afghanistan's August elections were marred by allegations of electoral
fraud, these allegations were addressed through constitutional means.
Ultimately, a new government was formed. Despite the serious issues
that remain to be addressed, a national survey completed in March 2010
indicates that 59 percent of Afghans believe their government is headed
in the right direction, an increase of 0.5 percent over December 2009
and 8 percent over September 2009.
At the January 28 London conference, following up on pledges he
made in his November inaugural speech, President Karzai reaffirmed his
government's commitment to peace, reconciliation and reintegration,
developing security force capability, good governance, fighting
corruption, economic development and regional cooperation. These
commitments have received strong international support as the
international community partners with the Afghan Government in a long-
term strategy to stabilize Afghanistan.
The London conference also produced a renewed international
commitment to strengthen civilian-military coordination in Afghanistan.
This commitment was reflected in part by the announcement of a new NATO
Senior Civilian Representative who is now serving as General
McChrystal's civilian counterpart, as well as the appointment of
Staffan de Mistura, an experienced United Nations (U.N.) diplomat, as
the new Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary General for the
U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). An international
conference will be conducted in Kabul in July, allowing for the Afghan
Government to present its plans for accelerating efforts to improve
economic opportunity, security, and governance.
The Afghan Government is in the lead for reconciliation and
reintegration efforts. President Karzai has issued interim guidance for
the execution of reintegration programs, with final guidance expected
after completion of the Consultative Peace Jirga later this month.
Karzai's guidance assigns responsibility to the Provincial governors to
implement programs that will allow reintegration into civil society of
those mid- to low-level insurgents who break ties with al-Qaeda, cease
violence, and accept the Afghan Constitution, including the rights and
protections for women and ethnic groups. We expect to release funding
from the Afghan Reintegration Program Authority, authorized in the FY10
National Defense Authorization Act. The ARPA will fund DOD
reintegration activities in support of the Afghan program.
President Karzai will visit Washington next week. A number of key
ministers will join him and participate in meetings on themes critical
to achieving our joint objectives implementing the Afghan Government's
London conference commitments. Meetings with President Obama and U.S
Cabinet officials will reinforce the long-term and vital partnership
between our two countries in areas ranging from security to governance
and economic development. The visit will also highlight the continuing
support among Afghans for U.S. support to Afghanistan, particularly
appreciation for the sacrifice being made by U.S. soldiers and
civilians working along side their Afghan counterparts. During the
visit, we expect to discuss a strengthened United States-Afghan
Strategic Partnership Declaration, to be finalized later this year.
This is a shared priority for the Afghans and for us, and we believe it
will add confidence and clarity to our long-term partnership with
Afghanistan. The Declaration will outline a shared vision for how the
United States plans to support Afghanistan, as well as how we plan to
work with Afghanistan's neighbors to integrate it into a more
supportive and prosperous regional environment. None of these steps
will guarantee success. But we are seeing conditions that we believe
are necessary for success to begin to emerge. We have the right
mission, the right strategy, and the right leadership team in place.
U.S., international and Afghan civilian and military resources have
been marshaled to effectively support the mission. The majority of
international forces in Afghanistan are now under Commander, ISAF's
(COMISAF's) command, ensuring greater unity of command.
Our efforts to build the capacity of the Afghanistan National
Security Forces are showing progress, though significant challenges
remain. Currently, the Afghan National Army (ANA) strength is at
119,338, well above the April target of 116,500, compared to an
authorized strength of 134,000 for FY 2010. The Afghan National Police
(ANP) has reached 102,138, with an authorized strength of 109,000 for
FY 2010. In FY11, our goal is to build the ANA to 171,600, and the ANP
to 134,000. We think these goals are achievable. Indeed the
international community must publicly commit to supporting the training
and equipping of Afghanistan's security forces even after our combat
forces begin a responsible drawdown.
Nevertheless, risks to the growth and quality of both Ministry of
Defense (MOD) and Ministry of Interior (MOI) forces remain. The newly
formed NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan (NTM-A), led by LTG William
Caldwell, is working closely with the MOD and MOI to improve
recruiting, training, retention and attrition. For example, salary and
benefit initiatives have raised pay for the ANSF and addressed pay
disparities between ANA and ANP forces. The MOI has created
institutions like the MOI Recruiting and Training Commands to
institutionalize best practices. The MOI is also implementing a revised
ANP development model that will ensure all recruits receive adequate
training before they are deployed in field. The Focused District
Development program has provided follow-on training for Afghan
Uniformed Police in 83 districts. The Focused Border Development
program is accomplishing the same for the Afghan Border Police. The MoI
has, in coordination with NTM-A, initiated planning to address
leadership and professional development and to identify ways to counter
corruption. NTM-A/Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan
(CSTC-A) is working with the MOI to institute a competitive selection
and promotion process that is transparent and merit based. COMISAF has
directed that the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP) partnering
program be expanded to provide direct mentoring. A rotation program has
been implemented for ANCOP to ensure the units have an opportunity to
refit and refresh after extended counterinsurgency (COIN) operations.
All of these initiatives demonstrate the considerable attention being
given to improve the quality of the ANSF force.
We are also beginning to see signs of progress resulting from using
development to support sustainable governance. Less than a year ago,
Arghandab was an insurgent safe haven. After some tough fighting last
summer and fall, the conditions for establishing security and
implementing governance and development programs began to emerge.
International actors are partnering with the Afghan district governor,
local tribal leadership, an ANA Kandak and local Afghan Police to
develop the programs that are building a foundation for governance and
economic development.
This is not to suggest that achieving success in Afghanistan will
be easy, far from it; we face many challenges as we move forward. As
already mentioned, we continue to struggle to improve retention and
decrease attrition in the ANSF, and we also need to continue to improve
the quality of the force. In the face of continued shortfalls, we are
engaging in aggressive diplomatic efforts to encourage our
international partners to provide institutional trainers and mentoring
teams for the ANSF. A series of NATO meetings over the last 5 months,
including the April Foreign Ministerial, focused heavily on addressing
these shortfalls.
Inevitably, we will face setbacks even as we achieve successes. We
also need to prepare for the possibility that things will get worse
before they get better. As additional U.S. and other international
forces flow into theater and move into other geographic areas where
ISAF forces have not previously gone, we have seen increases in
violence and increases in attacks on our troops. Our adversaries are
intelligent and adaptable, and we will need to continuously refine our
own tactics in response.
As you all know, operations in Helmand are ongoing, along with
planning and shaping efforts for future operations in Kandahar. I want
to emphasize that for ISAF and our Afghan partners, Helmand operations
have been the first large-scale effort to fundamentally change how we
do business. In Helmand, protecting the population is our top priority,
along with ensuring that our military operations to ``clear'' Marjah
pave the way for truly Afghan-led governance and economic development
activities in the ``hold'' and ``build'' phases. Preparation for the
operation included extraordinary levels of civil-military planning and
engagement with the Afghans--from ANSF partners, to Afghan ministries,
to local tribes and populations with the operation ultimately approved
and ordered by President Karzai. Kandahar involves some fundamentally
different challenges that will require different approaches. In the
end, however, the success of both of these efforts will be largely
dependent on tackling the whole-of-government challenge of building and
sustaining governance and security institutions.
Let me conclude by underscoring our assessment that the insurgency
is losing momentum and we are heading in the right direction. That
said, the outcome is far from determined. While over 50 percent of
additional forces are in place, those still to come are critical to
achieving success. None of what we are doing in Afghanistan involves
quick fixes. These are long-term problems, and their solutions will
require both patience and flexibility. At this point, though, we are
cautiously optimistic. As said earlier, we believe we finally have the
right mission, the right strategy, the right leadership, and the right
resources. As we move forward, we will continue to adjust--and we
believe that we will continue to make progress.
As you know, the Congress is considering DOD's FY11 budget request,
including $110.3 billion for Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) within
Overseas Contingency Operations, as well as an FY10 Supplemental
request for $28.8 billion for OEF. These funds are critical to
supporting the solution set for our mission in Afghanistan, and I ask
for your support.
Thank you. We look forward to your questions and comments.
The Chairman. Thank you very much. Senator Lugar has joined
me. Did you want to make any opening, Senator?
Senator Lugar. Why don't we continue with the testimony?
The Chairman. Great. All right.
Ambassador.
STATEMENT OF MR. FRANK RUGGIERO, SENIOR CIVILIAN
REPRESENTATIVE, REGIONAL COMMAND-SOUTH, DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN
Mr. Ruggiero. Thank you, Senator Kerry. Mr. Chairman, Mr.
Ranking Member, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the
opportunity to testify today on Marjah and our broader efforts
to stabilize southern Afghanistan.
I have a written statement that I'd like to submit for the
record. I'll keep my opening----
The Chairman. Without objection, it will be put in.
Mr. Ruggiero. I'll keep my opening comments very short. I
understand you have a hard deadline at 10 o'clock.
The Chairman. Well, we have some flexibility in it.
Mr. Ruggiero. OK. I would just make a couple opening
comments.
First of all, we greatly appreciate the support of the
Congress to what we're trying to do in southern Afghanistan. I
think we're at a critical moment in turning the momentum in the
south against the Taliban. I think General McChrystal's
strategy is leading to that moment where we could see change in
the momentum.
I again greatly appreciate the support of the Congress. I
have on various occasions traveled with many members of this
committee, Senator Kaufman twice, throughout southern
Afghanistan.
I want to say thank you to General Nicholson for the kind
words in his opening comments. When I arrived in southern
Afghanistan, General Nicholson was the Deputy Commander of RC-
South and he personally welcomed me to southern Afghanistan and
he set the conditions for the civilian uplift and how effective
it has been in southern Afghanistan.
Just a few words on the civilian uplift itself. Senator
Kerry said I'm the Senior Civilian Representative in southern
Afghanistan. I have the authority of the Chief of Mission in
the South. This was an invention by Ambassador Eikenberry to
push authority down into the field in a combat zone.
When I arrived in southern Afghanistan, there were about 8
or 10 U.S. civilians in southern Afghanistan. We expanded that
to over a hundred. I have people at the district level, at the
provincial level, working with the Afghans on a day-to-day
basis, working with our military counterparts to bring
governance and stability and economic development to southern
Afghanistan.
With that, I'll end my closing remarks. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Ruggiero follows:]
Prepared Statement of Frank Ruggiero, U.S. Senior Civilian
Representative, Regional Command-South, Department of State,
Washington, DC
introduction
Mr. Chairman, Mr. Ranking Member, ladies and gentlemen, thank you
for the opportunity to testify before this committee on recent United
States and international civil-military activities in the Marjah
District of Helmand province, as well as our broader efforts to support
the Afghan Government in its efforts to provide expanded governance and
improved socioeconomic opportunities across southern Afghanistan. I'm
pleased to be here today with BG Mick Nicholson from the U.S. Army, who
has been a superb partner for both our civilian team in the South and
also for our Afghan partners.
the civilian uplift
In March 2009, President Obama announced our intent to expand
greatly the number of U.S. civilian experts working in Afghanistan, and
especially the number of USG civilians deployed outside of Kabul. The
President highlighted this increased presence when he announced an
additional 30,000 troops for Afghanistan in December 2009, and
Secretary Clinton has emphasized that a robust civilian presence and
assistance mission will need to continue well beyond the conclusion of
our combat mission.
When I arrived in Kandahar to assume the new position of Senior
Civilian Representative for Southern Afghanistan in July 2009, there
were a total of eight U.S. civilians serving the six provinces that
constitute Regional Command-South (RC/S). That number has grown
steadily and we now have over 100 U.S. civilian officers from the State
Department, USAID, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture serving at
the RC/S headquarters as well as in four international Provincial
Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) and 12 newly formed District Support Teams
(DSTs). We very much appreciate the support of Congress in enabling us
to better address the huge needs in RC-S with greater human and
financial resources.
The State, USAID, and USDA representatives at our PRTs and DSTs
actively engage with the Afghan provincial and district governments,
offering them support and working in tandem to develop Afghan
Government capacity and implement development projects crucial to the
success of our overall military mission. These officers operate in the
most challenging of circumstances.
The DSTs are a critical innovation to extend the reach of the
Afghan Government to the grassroots, which is key to General
McChrystal's counterinsurgency (COIN) strategy. DSTs typically consist
of one State, one USAID, and one USDA representative. Their working and
living conditions vary from district to district, but their primary
role is to engage with the district government on a close basis. In
fact, they frequently live at or within the district government
compound. Working in partnership with district government leadership,
U.S. military counterparts, and Afghan security forces, the DST
supports activities such as creating workable district development
plans and forming representative community councils. They seek to
strengthen the district government's links with provincial authorities
to ensure the needs of the district are conveyed and that appropriate
ministries in Kabul address their needs, always with transition
ultimately in mind. In areas and districts where the Afghan Government
has recently asserted greater authority, DSTs, in partnership with
ISAF, become the backbone in support of Afghan governance.
U.S. civilians have a very close working relationship with ISAF at
all levels. However, they fall under the Chief of Mission authority of
Ambassador Eikenberry and their activities are directed and coordinate
by me and my interagency team colocated with the RC-South military
headquarters at Kandahar. In the South, I am the partner of the RC/S
Commander, U.K. Maj. Gen. Nick Carter.
the importance of helmand and marjah
Recent civ-mil operations in Marjah are part of the wider Operation
Moshtarak, which in Dari means ``together.'' Operations include not
only Marjah, but the larger Nad-e-Ali district. These operations are an
example of the expanded U.S. civilian presence that, working with our
Afghan and ISAF partners, seeks to extend Afghan governance authority
across the South. In the past year, we conducted similar stability
operations in Arghandab, Nawa, and Garmsir. So, why Marjah, and why
now?
From a counterinsurgency perspective, the Helmand River Valley is
key to securing the population of southern Afghanistan. Over 75 percent
of the population of Helmand resides in the districts between Gereshk
and Garmsir on the Helmand River; Marjah is a key district in this area
of approximately 100 square miles with an estimated population of 40-50
thousand in the new Marjah district boundaries. U.S. Marines and
British forces cleared much of central Helmand in the summer of 2009,
but Marjah and parts of Nad-e-Ali district remained under Taliban
control. The Taliban view Helmand as a key province to control and to
use as a supply route for its activities throughout the south and
further north. In recent years, Helmand has been Afghanistan's most
violent province and has produced by far the most narcotics, but it is
also the province with the largest percentage of arable land and is
among the most populated. Strategically, Helmand is also critically
linked to the development and security of neighboring Kandahar
province. For decades, the United States has had significant interests
in working with the Afghan Government to develop and build capacity in
Helmand, including in the 1950s building the irrigation system that
created many Helmand population centers, including Marjah.
Marjah was under direct Taliban and narcobaron control from 2008
until the Afghan Government reasserted its authority with international
support in February 2010. Marjah has been a staging ground for attacks
on government-controlled areas, including a number of attacks on the
provincial capital Lashkar Gah less than 20 miles away. The town was
also producing a great proportion of the IEDs used against Afghan and
international forces in Helmand. With its richly irrigated farmland,
Marjah was also Helmand's primary poppy growing district. Marjah was
thus not only one of the last Taliban strongholds in central Helmand
but through illicit crop taxation, a productive financial source for
insurgents.
The operation in Marjah also had important effects for Nawa,
another key district in Helmand, adjacent to Marjah. Throughout late
2009 and early 2010, Nawa district leaders and citizens were wary of
the negative influence from their neighbor. Within a month of the
formation of the Nawa community council in October 2009, Taliban taking
refuge in Marjah assassinated three members, including the chairman.
After these killings, the community council took several months to
rebound to a point where members felt safe enough to represent their
villages openly. Additionally, Taliban control of Marjah restricted
Nawa residents' freedom of movement as they were scared to travel on
roads when the enemy could attack them and then easily retreat to
Marjah. As Marjah's security expands, Nawa's security, governance, and
economic growth will also progress, as will the conditions in
neighboring
Nad-e-Ali and the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, total population
of around
\1/2\ million.
a new level of partnership with afghans
Operation Moshtarak to clear Marjah and Nad-e-Ali districts
represented a new level of partnership between the Afghan Government
and the international community to plan and implement a fully
integrated civilian-military clearance and stabilization operation,
with Helmand Governor Mangal in the lead. Plans were developed in
complete consultation with Afghan authorities. And Governor Mangal led
a delegation together with his Afghan Security partners--and including
Afghan police and army counterparts--to brief President Karzai and his
National Security Council in late January. General Carter and I spent
many hours with our Afghan counterparts planning this operation to
ensure the political context was set, Afghan forces were available and
partnered with ISAF forces, and the Governor Mangal-led stabilization
plan was in place. The Afghan Government also made a concerted effort--
through the Independent Directorate for Local Governance (IDLG)--to
develop a District Development Plan in Nad-e-Ali, including Marjah, to
create enhanced local governance capacity. This included filling the
staffing patterns of district-level government offices once clearing
operations were concluded. Filling these government positions is key to
our COIN efforts to extend Afghan governance authority in key districts
and has been a significant challenge due to limited Afghan capacity.
There are Afghan civil servants qualified to fill positions at the
provincial or district level, but most are reluctant to actively occupy
positions in recently cleared areas throughout Helmand. Some officials
have returned to Nad-e-Ali and Marjah districts, but it will remain an
ongoing effort to convince Afghan civil servants to work from these
district centers.
Operation Moshtarak proceeded only after receiving final approval
of Afghan authorities. On February 11, Minister of Interior Atmar and
Governor Mangal convened a well-attended meeting, dubbed a ``super
shura,'' with local elders in Lashkar Gah to discuss Operation
Moshtarak and respond to questions and concerns. At President Karzai's
request, Governor Mangal held a follow-up shura on February 12 with a
smaller group of key Marjah elders to ensure that all of the
operational details were understood. On the evening of February 12,
President Karzai authorized the launch of the operation. Hours later,
at approximately 0200 on February 13, Afghan and ISAF forces commenced
operations.
d-day
In the weeks leading up to Operation Moshtarak, State Department
and USAID civilians, as well as USAID implementing partners, worked
side by side with their Afghan and ISAF counterparts to prepare for the
launch of the operation. The degree of civilian integration and
planning exceeded all previous efforts in Afghanistan. Heeding the
advice of RC-South and the U.S. Marines, and acting in coordination
with Afghan Government authorities, U.S. civilians entered Marjah at
D+4 with the District Governor elect to conduct a development survey.
Once military forces secured an area near the Marjah village center for
a secure forward operating base, U.S. civilians, as well as several
Afghan Government representatives, moved their operations to Marjah and
established residency there. On February 25, the Afghan flag was raised
at the Nad-e-Ali district center. On March 7, President Karzai,
accompanied by several ministers, visited Marjah and met with local
residents.
marjah today
Although still early in the campaign--less than 3 months into the
hold phase--conditions in and around Marjah are becoming more secure
since the launch of the operation. Freedom of movement is improving for
local residents, including commercial movement to and from markets in
Lashkar Gah. Residents in some parts of Marjah, however, continue to be
intimidated and harassed by insurgents and the levels of violence
remain a hindrance to establishing Afghan governance and stability
operations.
While still hindered by the lack of security and freedom of
movement, the Afghan Government presence in Marjah is becoming larger
and more active, with the support of U.S. and U.K. civilians. With the
exception of Nad-e-Ali, there are now more permanent civil servants
working in Marjah than in any other district in Helmand. District
Governor Haji Zahir is reaching out aggressively to elders and
communities and is present in the district center, which is currently
undergoing refurbishment. The bulk of his immediate staff is in place,
including the Chief Executive, Office Director, Sector Director, and
District/Village Officer. There are a growing number of line ministry
officials working in Marjah on a seconded basis from the Ministry of
Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL), the Ministry of Rural
Reconstruction and Development (MRRD), the Ministry of Education, the
Ministry of Public Health. In addition, there is now a prosecutor,
seven National Directorate of Security (NDS) officials, and five
Criminal Investigative Division (CID) officials in Marjah. This
increase must be tempered against the reality that Afghan governance
capacity is limited and even the creation of this level of government
is likely to prove a challenge to replicate in other key districts in
any short-term timeframe.
There are other important, ongoing activities in Marjah:
construction of a new government center has begun; roads are under
construction; over 2,000 farmers have benefited from the a poppy
transition program; and about 4,000 water pumps and agricultural
support packages will be distributed by USAID under the Afghanistan
Vouchers for Increased Production in Agriculture (AVIPA) Plus program.
Public services such as health, education, water, and dispute
settlement are start-
ing to be provided. Students at Luy Cherey Boys High School in Marjah
are now going to classes in temporary tents. The classes were moved
from the damaged school building to the temporary tents, so that
demolition and construction of a new school building can begin at the
site. Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) are increasingly visible
on the streets and bazaars of Marjah and now occupy an ever increasing
number of observation posts at the major intersections. There is also
an increasingly level of commercial activity. There is, however, a long
way to go.
the future of marjah
The governance outlook for Marjah is generally positive. Afghan
officials in Kabul are working with the provincial and district
governments to provide more support from the central government. They
are seeking ways to increase the quantity and quality of Afghan
National Police deployed in the district in coordination with the
international community and ISAF. Both Governor Mangal and the Marjah
District Governor are engaged in an aggressive political outreach
campaign to understand community needs that must be addressed and to
ensure that residents recognize the government is seeking to address
those concerns. Key officials also remain engaged in implementing the
District Development Plan, soliciting assistance for all sectors from
the central government and international community.
ISAF will continue to work closely with Afghan authorities at all
levels. Given that the face of ISAF is often the first seen by
residents after a clearing operation, ISAF forces play an important
role in ensuring a smooth transition from security operations to
civilian-led development operations. The Marines understand this. ISAF
forces will continue to work with civilian and Afghan counterparts to
achieve maximum results. U.S. civilians, working with their U.K. and
Danish counterparts at the Helmand PRT, will continue to support the
Marjah DST, currently Afghanistan's largest DST in terms of
international money and staff. The PRT will also continue to work with
the provincial and district governments on political outreach and to
push for greater line ministry representation and delivery for Marjah.
challenges
Governance can only improve as fast as Afghan authorities can
provide properly trained staff with adequate salaries and benefits that
will ensure they stay on the job. Security also plays a crucial role in
increasing governance capacity. Representatives of some line ministries
continue to refuse to stay in Marjah, fearing intimidation and
violence, and those officials who do show up to work require greater
freedom of movement to become effective service providers.
There is no ``one size fits all'' strategy for development and
capacity-building in districts following ``clearing'' operations. Nawa
and Garmsir districts, for example, followed different, yet largely
successful paths. But the one common feature is that of the different
phases of counterinsurgency (shape, clear, hold, build, transfer),
``clear'' is vital but not the decisive phase, it is the ``shape''
phase and the prospect of what comes in the ``hold'' phase that is
decisive in southern Afghanistan. Likewise, conditions in Marjah are
unique in some respects. A ready-made government concept cannot take
into account all the intricacies for proper governance capacity
building. Having a district governor in Marjah with a staff within the
first 45 days following the launch of the operations was no small feat
for rural Afghanistan, but more resources and greater central
government support will push the government to better, higher levels.
Afghan capacity, however, remains limited.
Although these are real challenges, we expect that efforts by the
Afghan Government and international community to improve conditions in
Marjah will persist. As has happened in some other districts in the
South, such as Nawa, Garmsir, and Arghandab, solid, measureable
progress in Marjah could likely be achieved in the months to come. The
key to success at the district level is to tie Afghans to their
government and allow local residents to believe in a future without
Taliban intimidation. This takes times, resources, and persistent
security. And great patience.
The Chairman. Wow. Those are pretty brief opening remarks.
I think we'll have to bring you back here and have you lead our
witness school and get everybody similarly prepped.
Well, thank you, both. Again, thanks for the job you're
doing and thanks for the testimony. It's helpful.
Help us to understand. Do you agree with General
Nicholson's sense that those comments--I thought that that
analysis had been made fairly recently. So in the back end,
when the kinetic had stopped but that doesn't mean there
wouldn't be some spillover in the impact, but what about this
notion that more people joined the Taliban?
I mean, this is always one of the arguments you hear about
any of the kinetic operations that we engage in, that they wind
up encouraging that. What's your take? Are we still looking at
an Afghanistan where you're looking at about a 90-percent
dislike of the Taliban?
Mr. Ruggiero. That's my sense, Senator. I read the
executive summary of that report this morning and from everyone
that I talk to in southern Afghanistan, from government
officials at the district level to the provincial level to
Afghans on a daily basis, I do not get the sense that there is
great support or even limited support for the Taliban and what
the Taliban has to offer.
In general, the Taliban, what they do offer in terms of
services are a crude brutal form of justice and that is
something that Afghans will generally gravitate toward because
it is a dispute resolution process that the Taliban offers.
The Taliban offers nothing else. They offer no services.
They offer no sense of security. So when we go in there and do
basic counterinsurgency operations, which is to help the Afghan
Government at the district and provincial level deliver basic
services to the Afghan people, we generally find a pretty
receptive audience, once the security conditions are set, that
people can take part in the programs that we're offering
through the government.
The Chairman. When you analyze our policy there and as we
led up to the sort of new strategy and its implementation,
there was a lot of debate about nation-building and the
fundamental decision was made: we are not going to engage in
``nation-building.''
On the other hand, it seems to me that we are doing some
local community-building which is not unlike nation-building
but it's just--it's sort of local to an area. I don't know how
we could do what we say we're trying to do which is stand up a
government, provide some services, get some jobs, give them
some schooling, you know, do the things necessary, without
providing some of the resources to do that.
I assume you all agree with that and, therefore, it begs
the question, Are we providing enough? Do we have the
sufficient civilian component here to wrap up what you folks in
the military have, kind of, set the stage for adequately?
What's your judgment about that, General?
General Nicholson. Sir, first, I agree that an amount of
building of capacity is absolutely essential to the outcome,
and I'll just go back to that Coin model. This connection
between the population and the government is about
transparency. It's about delivery of basic services. It's about
a degree of accountability. So those dimensions must be there
or we won't connect them to their government.
So the art of this, as you mentioned, is how to build that
capacity. We were discussing Greg Mortonson's work before.
Education is certainly a key component there in a country with
the majority of the population under the age of 17. The
education of the next generation who will be those capable
leaders and serving in the military and the civil service and
so forth is absolutely essential. So yes, sir, that is
required.
One of the challenges is the fielding of district level
governance capacity from two dimensions. One, the available
pool of Afghans able to do that and willing to do that, to go
to some of these more difficult areas and serve, so
incentivizing that is important, and then identifying and
recruiting those folks is extremely important.
The Chairman. You want to add to that?
Mr. Ruggiero. I do. I don't think we're involved in nation-
building in the grand Wesvalian sense. What we are doing is
using the resources provided to build enough Afghan capacity so
that in a counterinsurgency fight we'll be able to transition,
we'll be able to, first of all, allow the local Afghan
Government to provide basic services to the people so that we
can transition the authority that the coalition currently has
to, first, the ANSF, the Afghan National Security Forces, and
then to a district level government that can work with--and
provincial level government--that can work with that Afghan
National Security Force to take over the security
responsibilities.
So we're using our resources in a very targeted way to
create some very basic structures that will allow the
governance aspect to exist.
The Chairman. Underneath all of that, I wonder if, given
the complaints of some of the folks as expressed in that survey
which is not obviously the gospel with respect to all of this,
but it's a guidepost, if we wouldn't--if we shouldn't consider
some other kinds of programs or approaches, to wit, make sure
that there is a sufficient level of refugee assistance which, I
think, was not necessarily present in Marjah, go so far as to
actually offer--that we would offer--we would help the local
government to offer marriage and land allowances which seems to
me a pretty effective way to get young men focused on their
personal lives rather than being lost to, perhaps, insurgency.
A third idea: work with the local religious leaders to
renovate mosques, shrines, and to distribute the Koran which
would show a respect for Islam and something that would
resonate with the local populous. I am told that it's a big
deal in local culture if you actually own a Koran. I think it
would be something.
If we were to offer food aid, particularly in the harsh
summer and winter months when the water problems or the winter
problems are the toughest, and even consider poppy production
in terms of controlled medicine pilot projects where it's
medically related as a way to kind of break through on the
narcotics issue but still have some connection to the local
needs.
I mean, I think there are ways like that that we could be
more proactive and localized, I guess is the way I'd put it.
What do you think of that?
Mr. Ruggiero. Again, I read the report this morning and
some of the points in that report were actually very accurate
and raise some interesting points.
In terms of the overall report, I would echo what General
Nicholson said earlier, that we're very early in this campaign
in Marjah. I think we're at about 90 now or we're approaching
day 90.
I would point to Arghandab, which the Striker Brigade
cleared last summer in Kandahar. That was in August and
September 2009. They took significant casualties. It was
unstable for a period of time throughout the fall.
I think if you go to Arghandab now, and many of the members
have actually been out there, you'll see a place where we're
having fairly good success in terms of doing hold and build. So
we are hiring a lot of people. We--not we. We are doing through
the Afghan Government. In particular, there's an agricultural
program called the Afghan Vouchers Program.
We have had up to 40,000 people that we've given some form
of livelihood through that program and again this was funded by
the Congress at $360 million. This program's having a great
effect. We're just rolling that program out now in Marjah. Our
implementing partner is going into Marjah, I think, in the past
couple weeks.
The Taliban understands that we have this program. They
target this implementing partner. They blew up their facilities
in Lashkar Gah. They target their employees that travel the
road from Lashkar Gah out to Marjah.
So in terms of the report saying we should offer additional
things, I think we've tried to come up with some very creative
things with the support of the Congress.
The Chairman. Let me just interrupt you 1 minute. Our vote
has started. I'm going to go vote, try and get back as fast as
I can. Senator Lugar, if you would continue. We'll try to make
it uninterrupted, if we can, and I'll try to get back as fast
as I can.
Senator Lugar. All right. Thank you very much.
The Chairman. Go ahead. Finish up your answer.
Mr. Ruggiero. Thank you. On the refugees question, we
worked very closely with Governor Mangal, the Governor of
Helmand, to make sure that there were a various range of
programs in place if there were a large refugee flow out of
Marjah.
During the actual operation, the Afghan National Government
came to the decision that was relayed to the local people to
tell them not to leave their homes, to remain in their homes
and that the coalition would take great care to make sure that
collateral damage was minimized, and I think the U.S. military
did an outstanding job in that regard.
Let me go back one second to the refugee question. There
was some reports earlier this week that recently people have
been fleeing Marjah and we have checked. I have two or three
State Department--I actually have five State Department people
on the ground in Marjah and I've gone back to all of them and
they've gone and talked to their military counterparts and they
could not substantiate those reports that people are in fact
leaving.
On the poppy question, I think we have been very concerned
that the first action of the Afghan Government when it has
extended to Marjah, that the first thing it did--we wanted to
make sure the first thing it does is not to wipe out someone's
livelihood for the upcoming harvest. So we were careful not to
do--we don't do eradication any longer but the report was
skeptical, I think, in that it suggested that we did do
eradication. In fact, we have not in Marjah.
Senator Lugar. Thank you very much, sir. Let me give
portions of the opening statement that I would have made if I
had been prompt this morning. They will set the stage for some
of our additional questioning.
The Marjah offensive, launched in February of this year,
was the first phase of a joint counterinsurgency strategy
between Afghanistan and the International Security Assistance
Force. General McChrystal has said that soldiers are being
positioned to wage a summertime operation intended to push the
Taliban from their home turf in Kandahar where the insurgent
movement sustains itself.
As an objective, Kandahar is a dramatic leap in terms of
relative size and importance. What are the lessons learned in
Marjah regarding military and civilian engagement and, how
applicable will they be to Kandahar and the rest of the
country?
Through Afghan civilian governance had been bolstered in
Marjah and cash-for-work programs are underway, security
remains volatile and the situation is reported as reversible.
Progress, however it is measured, will be possible only with a
committed and engaged partner. President Karzai's effectiveness
has been questioned by several voices within the administration
during the last year. Recently President Karzai expressed only
conditional backing for the Kandahar operation. Subsequently,
the Secretary of State and General McChrystal asserted
confidence in his commitment to a partnership with the United
States.
A key to the President's strategy is shifting
responsibility to Afghan institutions is the Transfer element
of Clear-Hold-Build-Transfer. That means there must be Afghan
Security Forces and Afghan civil servants who are able to
accept responsibility and to operate effectively.
Thus far, the Afghan National Army appears to be a
relatively positive force. Yet despite partnering with ISAF
Forces in recent operations, it is evident that the Afghan Army
is still ill-prepared to lead. Meanwhile, raising the
capabilities of the Afghan National Police is proving a
difficult challenge for international police training experts.
The Afghan Civil Service Commission and the Afghan Civil
Institute also factor into the counterinsurgency equation. Each
is relatively new in meeting the requirements of providing
thousands of trained technocrats to enable basic service
delivery in select areas.
While there are commitments to train more than a thousand
persons a month, the reality is that such training will be
limited and spreading the personnel effectively across
Afghanistan will be a daunting challenge. I make these points
to outline the importance of setting and then meeting
appropriate expectations.
Building security forces to the level of several hundred
thousand does not, in and of itself, guarantee order and
discipline. Nor does populating districts with civil servants
mean that basic services will be delivered. Some observers
suggest much larger forces may be necessary, but that the
burden might well prove to be too great for both Afghans and
the international community.
Sustainable progress will require some political resolution
as well as committed Afghan partners capable of turning local
and national institutions into responsive entities for the
Afghan people. I look forward, as you are, compatriots on the
committee, to hearing from each of you and in subsequent rounds
I will hear more from you, but for the moment, I'll ask that we
recess the committee. Pending the return of our chairman, we'll
be in recess for a few minutes while the vote continues.
Thank you.
[Recess.]
Senator Kaufman. The wonders of the Senate. Sometimes you
feel absolutely Pavlovian. Bell rings, you go.
Really pleased to have you here today. Obviously there's
nothing we're doing that's more important than Afghanistan
because we have our wonderful, wonderful, wonderful troops in
harm's way and trying to get to the bottom of how to do this,
and I think we're doing a great job in Afghanistan in a very
difficult situation.
Obviously we left and came back a couple times and it makes
everything that we do over there so much more difficult. We've
got the right people over there, I think, and we're doing a
great job.
I'd like to kind of spend a couple minutes, obviously I've
talked about this a little bit, and I think the key points are
what you all said but, General, you know, really talking about
the build phase. It's not the U.S. versus the Taliban. I think
one of the biggest problems we have in this town is we kind of
start just morphing into the what can we do to make the people
like us as opposed to what can we do to make the government.
As you said, the key thing when you get to the build phase
is how do you connect with the government, not our government,
how to connect with their government, and how much of this, you
know, report about short-term happiness, unhappiness, I'd like
you to comment on how much do you think is just caused by the
people's terrible experience with the government before, not
that they dislike the Taliban, all the data shows that, they
really don't like the Taliban, but when you look at it in the
context, as you said, General, that it's really the government
versus the Taliban we're talking about, how much do you think
of the bad vibes or problem we're having, people may be joining
the Taliban is based on the people in Marjah's experience with
the government before the Taliban came in?
General Nicholson. Yes, sir. I mean, as you pointed out,
the enemy is not popular. He's dangerous but he's not popular,
and one of the other dimensions to Central Helmand is this
nexus between the enemy and the criminal element and so the
narcotraffickers, the drug trafficking organizations, and the
enemy together have combined to create a set of conditions
there, as well.
Senator Kaufman. Can I just stop for one second and just
ask you? Isn't there kind of a connect between the government
and the criminal element? I mean, this is not like we've got
the Taliban and the criminal element on this side and the
government on the other side and especially when you think
about Marjah pre-Taliban.
I mean, isn't it a problem for us--not a problem for us,
for the government because they're identified with them?
General Nicholson. Yes, sir. There are linkages between in
terms of government corruption, criminal elements and
insurgency and the nexus of all these various threads is
something we're working hard to identify and then to introduce
accountability and to counter that.
Senator Kaufman. But specifically in Marjah, and this is
good, I mean, because we can sit here and talk about
Afghanistan, but trying to hone in on Marjah, I think this is a
good example. I mean, clearly, the criminal elements were
almost in charge of Marjah before the Taliban--the Taliban kind
of came. They didn't like the Taliban, but then to a certain
extent the Taliban saved the local populous from the local
criminals.
General Nicholson. Sir, I'll give you one concrete data
point in this. When the Marines moved into Marjah with the
Afghan National Army and, of course, Governor Mangal's team
right on their heels, one of the first things they did was to
remove the police force from Marjah. This is the Afghan
Government Police----
Senator Kaufman. Right.
General Nicholson [continuing]. Were removed and replaced
by the Afghan National Civil Order Police who have greater
credibility----
Senator Kaufman. Right.
General Nicholson [continuing]. And are viewed as more
objective and capable by the people.
So in the initial shuras that were held and, Frank, I'll
defer to you because you were at those shuras, but this was one
of the chief complaints and so getting to your point about
dissatisfaction with the government, the police in Marjah was
one of the key elements of alienating the people from their own
governments.
So yes, that was key, and it was addressed specifically in
the planning and now, of course, the recruitment and the
training of a new police force to come in to Marjah and then be
partnered with the ISAF and ISAF elements in there will be
essential, we view, toward facilitating this linkage, you know,
between the people of Marjah and the larger Nadali District and
their own government.
So absolutely, there are connections there and where we
identify them, as in this case with the police, then we address
them quite directly, but that requires commitment on the part
of the Afghan Government which we have in the form of Governor
Mangal and on the part of President Karzai who approved the
operation and issued presidential directives for much of these
activities to take place.
Senator Kaufman. I know Mr. Ruggiero's anxious to speak,
but the point is that there will be reason for the people in
Marjah not to be happy--maybe happy to see us show up but not
really happy to have a new government show up, is that fair to
say? A concern?
Frank, you were there for the whole thing.
Mr. Ruggiero. I think that's absolutely fair. When we went
in to Marjah after the military cleared it, we had--we sat down
and talked with many government officials and local people and
the message was very clear that they gave to us, which was if
you are here as the coalition to bring back the police force
that was here before, we will go back and support the Taliban.
It was the message that was given to us. It was the message
that was given to the Afghan Government. So as General
Nicholson said, the planning called for when you put a new
police force into Marjah, you could not try to resurrect that
old police force but you were going to--what they pulled was
the Afghan National Civil Order Police and that is the police
force that currently is controlling Marjah.
There will be an effort to train up a new police force not
from that local area that will go in, but your point's
absolutely right.
Senator Kaufman. And it's not a trivial problem. I mean,
it's at the heart--I mean, it's not--it is the problem. I mean,
the people's experience with the government, their concern
about what they see happening in Kabul, it all affects how they
feel, whether it's positive or negative, that when we showed
up.
Mr. Ruggiero. Yes, and in a counterinsurgency fight, you're
basically trying to win it. There's an argument going on
between the government and the insurgents for the people's
loyalty.
If the first reaction or the first instance you have of
connection with your government is a corrupt police force or a
police force that, in the instance of Marjah, was harmful to
the people, you cannot win that counterinsurgency fight in that
particular area. So that we addressed that right off the bat
when we brought in the NKAM.
Senator Kaufman. Can you express in the same area the
conflict between trying to eradicate narcotics but at the same
time trying to win the hearts and minds of the people in the
area?
General Nicholson. Sir, in early 2009 we went through a
reconsideration of the counternarcotics approach in southern
Afghanistan and up until that time eradication, what was really
United States-funded eradication, effort was ongoing in
Helmand. There also has always been a governor-led eradication
effort underway.
We have shifted away from that U.S.-funded centrally led
eradication effort to focusing more on alternative livelihoods
and a heavier interdiction effort and we've seen success with
this approach thus far. It's beginning, and we're obviously
watching this very closely, but to get to your point, yes, the
logic would be that we interdict the drug trafficking
organizations with the Government of Afghanistan Special
Interdiction Forces which are trained and mentored by the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Agency and also some of our allies, so a heavy
focus on the drug trafficking organizations and their
interdiction and then in secured areas, like Marjah is now, we,
through the Afghan Government, reach out to them and offer
alternatives to help them transition from poppy to licit
agriculture.
So this is the new approach. We're watching it very closely
to see the effects on cultivation and the effects on the drug
trafficking organizations.
Senator Kaufman. Mr. Ruggiero.
Mr. Ruggiero. I think that's correct. Our focus now is no
longer on eradication because that inevitably harms the local
farmer who you're trying to win over in that contest with the
Taliban for support of the government.
What we do focus on now is interdiction and alternative
livelihoods. So we have a series of programs. I mentioned this
Afghan Vouchers Program and Agricultural Program that is
specifically designed to provide Afghan farmers input so they
move away from poppy production, and I think we've seen some
level of progress in poppy production thus far. In Helmand last
year, according to the United Nations, poppy production had
fallen by about 30 percent.
Senator Kaufman. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Senator Shaheen.
Senator Shaheen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning.
Thank you all for your service. It's very nice to see you in
D.C., General Nicholson.
I want to follow up a little bit on some of the things that
Senator Kaufman was talking about. As I'm sure you remember,
one of the people we met with on our visit to Helmand was
Governor Mangal and he got very good reviews from folks we had
talked to and was very impressive.
I wonder if you could talk about whether you think he's
able, given all of the constraints, to make progress there and
what the role that he and some of the other local officials are
playing and whether that's positive and have they been
integrated into the effort that we're working on with the
Central Government or are they operating independently. Either
one of you or both.
Mr. Ruggiero. I would just make a couple comments to start.
The planning for Marjah was really the first integrated
planning process that we did with the Afghans that went from
the district level to the provincial level where Governor
Mangal sits all the way up to the national level.
We developed the plans for Marjah in coordination with the
Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Defense, and those
Ministers of the National Government in Kabul, particularly
Minister Atmar of Interior and Minister Wordek at Defense.
The actual plans on the ground were developed with the
local A&A and the A&P commanders. They went to Kabul with the
Commander of RC-South. They briefed the Security Shura which is
the ministry-level bureaucracy in Kabul. They then briefed
President Karzai. President Karzai authorized the
authorization.
I think we in RC-South felt that we had to get the
political context right in order for Marjah to be effective. So
again, President Karzai came down before the operation began.
The plan was briefed to President Karzai. His ministers played
an active role in making sure the forces were available and the
resources.
So I think in terms of planning and what Governor Mangal
did, he did that in very, very close cooperation with the
National Government.
General Nicholson. Ma'am, if I could comment. Good to see
you again, ma'am.
Governor Mangal, in my opinion, is one of the better
governors in Afghanistan, if not the best, and I had the
opportunity to work with him in 2006 and 2007 in RC-East where
he was Governor of Paktika and Laghman provinces and then
worked with him again in Helmand province, which is arguably
one of the most difficult provinces in Afghanistan.
So my first point about Governor Mangal would be to me he's
representative of the caliber that we see of some of the Afghan
leaders who truly want this to be successful, want to see their
governments succeed, and it's individuals like Governor Mangal
and my personal contacts with him over the last 4 years that
have reinforced in me the belief that this is doable, that
because there are enough Afghans like him that want this to
succeed for them, not us to succeed but them to succeed to make
this attainable.
Specific examples of his leadership and the difference it's
made. I mentioned the Food Zone Program, as he calls it, which
is really focused on this transition from poppy to licit
agriculture. His important parts of the Food Zone Program, we
talked about interdiction, we talked about alternative
livelihoods, we talked about the eradication component, but
other critical components that he's taken on his own initiative
are the outreach to the local population, the shuras that he
holds in every district to talk about poppy and talk about why
it is better for them as a society to move away from poppy and
to move to licit agriculture.
He's harnessed the power of the religious Yulima of Helmand
against narcotics and incorporates Mullahs and religious
scholars into these discussions. So his outreach to the people
of Helmand goes beyond the specific programs. It really is
getting to the intangibles of this and trying to restore
normalcy and sustainable licit economy to the region and so
these are things that, of course, we cannot do, that they must
do for themselves and so watching him as a leader take those
steps to--and in so doing pitting himself against some very
wealthy and powerful narcotrafficking organizations and to do
that even though there's been well over half a dozen attempts
on his life in this most recent job, again gives me great
confidence that the individuals like him, if supported
properly, can move this thing forward.
Senator Shaheen. And is he getting support from the central
government in those efforts? I appreciate that you explained
that they were involved in developing the strategy for Marjah,
but on those kinds of outreach initiatives, the efforts to turn
things around, is the central government supportive? Are they
an impediment or are they irrelevant?
Mr. Ruggiero. I think in the instance of Marjah, the
central government was critical to the planning and the
availability of resources on the Afghan side. The Independent
Director for Local Governance, the Minister that's in charge of
Subnational Governance in Afghanistan, came to Marjah and to
Helmand at least four, five, or six times. His objective was to
help Governor Mangal create local governance capacity which is
a real challenge in southern Afghanistan and across
Afghanistan.
Senator Shaheen. right.
Mr. Ruggiero. But in the end, what we've ended up seeing is
that, at least in Marjah, you're starting to see some level of
governance capacity develop. I think as of last count there are
about 16 members of the district government team in Marjah
itself which is for southern Afghanistan fairly large. So from
my experience of working with the Afghans on the planning for
Marjah, I think the central government played a very important
and critical role.
Senator Shaheen. And I'm almost out of time, so maybe I
should save this question, but as you're thinking about lessons
from Marjah that can be used as we're looking at what needs to
be done in Kandahar, are there particular things that you
observed that we've experienced that we think are important as
we're looking at what needs to be done in Kandahar?
General Nicholson. Ma'am, and I'm sure Frank has many
lessons, as well, this methodology of briefing the operation
all the way up to the central government level, seeking
Presidential endorsement and leadership and then his personal
involvement in the shuras and his guidance to his ministers,
the focusing of the ministries on the local level, it was an
important lesson and has led to some of the advances that we've
made down there.
Mr. Ruggiero. I think the primary lesson learned on the
governance side again recognizes the limiting factor of Afghan
capacity. There were plans in place early on to try to get a
lot of Afghan Government capacity into Marjah very quickly.
That did not happen as fast as we would like.
So we've worked with Minister Popal of the Subnational
Governance Ministry basically and we're trying to--for
Kandahar, we're going to try to prioritize which positions we
want to see filled at the district level first and we can get
to the larger--it's called the Tashkil which is a manning
document. Later on, as resources permit, but we need to
prioritize to get those key ministry officials down to the
district level as soon as possible.
Senator Shaheen. Thank you.
Mr. Sedney. If I could just add one other lesson learned.
About 3 weeks ago, the three of us were in Kabul at a meeting
led by Ambassador Holbrooke and General Petraeus reviewing the
progress of the civil-military operations and a number of
Afghan ministers were there and talking about the Marjah
operation.
Several of the ministers pointed out that one of the
lessons they had learned is to question their own assumptions,
that their assumptions about what they expected when Marjah
happened turned out not to be right, and that they were going
to learn in the future to question their assumptions and reach
out more to the people at the local level rather than relying
on people at intermediate levels, and I thought that was a very
important lesson that the Afghan Government officials had
learned.
Senator Shaheen. That's great. Thank you, all.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Senator Feingold.
Senator Feingold. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you,
General Nicholson and Mr. Ruggiero, for being here today and,
Mr. Chairman, thank you for continuing your efforts to ensure
that Congress and the American people are fully aware of the
status of our efforts in Afghanistan.
It's too early to judge the long-term effects of the
offensive in Marjah but already there are reports that the
Taliban are once again asserting their presence there. I
question how well we can ``clear'' areas when Taliban fighters
meld into local populous and ``hold'' them in a sustainable
manner when regular police forces are perceived to be either
corrupt or unreliable.
Moreover, the Afghan Government's rampant corruption and
the disaffection among the population in the South are not
going to be fixed by the arrival of an additional 30,000
American troops in Afghanistan.
So obviously I think we have to ask whether a massive open-
ended military presence that has already increased United
States and Afghan civilian casualties and cost tens of billions
of dollars makes sense. Our troops will no doubt do everything
that we
ask of them and will be successful tactically, but the question
is whether the strategy our government has adopted is actually
going to make our country safer. I am not convinced that that's
the case.
The time has come, in my view, to set a timetable for
responsibly drawing down our troops so we can focus on pursuing
a sustainable global strategy to combat al-Qaeda.
I'll turn to some questions. General Nicholson, Secretary
Clinton has testified that we anticipate that it will take 3 to
5 years to transition control to Afghan security forces, but
press reports on Marjah raised questions about Afghan Army
combat performance, readiness, and discipline.
By your estimate, how many years will it take to completely
transfer control to Afghan security forces in RC-South if we
continue to pursue the current strategy?
General Nicholson. Well, sir, I'd ask that we use the
process that Secretary Gates and with the President have
devised to assess this. Our goal right now is to introduce the
forces, execute the campaign.
We're about halfway through the introduction of those
forces. In December of this year to assess where we are on the
strategy and then from there make those kinds of judgments that
you're asking for.
Senator Feingold. But would you agree with Secretary
Clinton's assessment of 3 to 5 years?
General Nicholson. Sir, I mean, this will take a period of
time. For example, President Karzai at the London Conference
said he would like to take over security responsibilities for
the entire country within a 5-year framework. We support that
goal.
Our already approved and funded growth of the Afghan
National Security Forces carries us through to the end of 2011.
So clearly there will be an effort there to continue to grow
those forces. So in that window of 3 to 5 years that she talked
about is the timeframe that we're talking about in terms of the
growth of their security forces and the ability of them to take
over the fight.
Senator Feingold. Thank you, General. Mr. Ruggiero and
General Nicholson, the Christian Science Monitor reported that
one of the factors that enabled the Taliban to take hold in
Marjah was the abusive rule of warlords who are now apparently
actually seeking a place in the new government as well,
including by lobbying in Kabul.
I'm concerned, as others are, that President Karzai is not
serious about working to address the warlordism that has
alienated the population in the south. His recent support for
an amnesty law that gives immunity from prosecution to warlords
would seem to, you know, sort of cast that into further doubt.
Do you share those concerns, Mr. Ruggiero?
Mr. Ruggiero. In terms of the Marjah operation, I think the
concern you express is accurate, that in fact there was a local
police force that was in Marjah prior to 2008 that had
conducted itself in a manner, and it was linked to local power
brokers, that did open the door for the Taliban to go back into
Marjah and take control. In fact, they did do that in 2008.
In the planning efforts again to secure Marjah, we were
very clear to work with the central government, to work with
the official representation of the government, so with the
ministry levels in Kabul, with Governor Mangal in Helmand
itself and with the district government officials and the local
A&A officials.
Again, recognizing that the police issue was a problem in
Marjah, we did not go back to the police officials that had
existed prior to the Taliban taking over in 2008. A different
force was brought in, Afghan National Civil Order Police. This
was to address that linkage between the police force that had
been there and local power brokers.
Senator Feingold. General, do you share these concerns?
General Nicholson. Yes, sir. As Frank mentioned, the police
in Marjah were predatory, not protecting the population, and
this was one of the principal complaints of the people, and to
the extent that that's a reflection of some nongovernmental
actor or governmental actor who is acting in a way that's not
consistent with support for the people, they were present in
Marjah.
But as Mr. Ruggiero pointed out, one of our first acts upon
securing Marjah was to remove that police force and replace
them with the more credible and capable Afghan National Civil
Order Police and then begin a process of recruiting and
training a new police force and that in fact is what's
occurring now.
Senator Feingold. General and Mr. Ruggiero, have we seen
any interest in Taliban reintegration as a result of Operation
Moshtarak?
Mr. Ruggiero. Well, reintegration in Afghanistan is an
Afghan-led process and reintegration is designed to go after
those low-level and mid-level fighters that are willing to come
off the battlefield.
We had been waiting for the Afghan Government to put out
its interim guidance which President Karzai authorized in the
past week or so. We have not seen large numbers of integration
of the mid-fighter level. I think the security situation would
be key first. I mean, people are making a decision, do I think
the government's going to win here, do I think the Taliban's
going to win?
So in Marjah, I don't think we've hit that tipping point
from the security perspective that you'd see a large number of
reintegrees, but what you do see, and this is a theme that you
see throughout the areas we've cleared since July of last year,
is that when we come in with the military and due cash for work
programs, for example, there's an unemployment rate in southern
Afghanistan that's 60-some percent and oftentimes the Taliban
will recruit simply on an economic basis to get people to come
out, plant an idea, take a couple shots with an AK-47.
You will see those people working on these programs that
the U.S. Agency for International Development puts out so that
those low-level fighters almost do an instantaneous
reintegration where they now have employment opportunities,
they take advantage of the programs we are offering.
What we haven't seen yet, though, is that mid-level
commander coming in with maybe 50 or 60 fighters in the Marjah
area. I think you'll see that, though, when the security
situation improves and now that we have the Afghan guidance on
it.
Senator Feingold. Thanks to both of you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Feingold.
Senator Cardin.
Senator Cardin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I certainly
appreciate our witnesses being here today.
Let me talk a little bit about the poppy and drug trade.
According to the United Nations, no country in the world has
ever produced narcotics at the deadly rate that's been done in
Afghanistan and I understand the strategies about trying to
have substitute crops and the eradication program not being
successful.
Can you just share with us the impact of the Marjah
campaign on the drug production in that region and whether we
have had success in substituting crops, whether the bottom line
production of poppy crop has been reduced and what the
prognosis is for the future?
General Nicholson. Yes, sir. And the overall approach, as
you highlighted, was a shift from centralized eradication to an
effort focused on interdiction of the drug trafficking
organizations and we estimate there's about half a dozen of
these major drug trafficking organizations in southern
Afghanistan and then in secured areas assisting the farmers to
transition from poppy to licit agriculture.
So this is the fundamental approach. That approach is
reinforced and I should mention the governor in southern
Afghanistan or in Helmand province, Governor Mangal, has a
program, a counternarcotics program, completely led by his
government, called the Food Zone Program, which involves an
information component and an outreach to the population on the
desire of having licit agricultural economy vice a poppy-based
one.
It invokes religious leaders to discuss about opium vis-a-
vis Islam and it involves a component of eradication. So
there's still eradication led by the Afghan Government but only
when--after he's made the offer to citizens to transition and
he offers them assistance with weed, seed, and agricultural
assistance. If they still choose to plant poppy in spite of
that offer, then he goes in and conducts governor-led
eradication. So there's a multidimensional effort ongoing in
these areas.
The significance of our operations in southern Afghanistan
this year, as you point out, sir, is that southern Afghanistan
produces the majority of the opium in the country. The country
produces over 90 percent of the opium in the world.
The area of Central Helmand is one of the most densely
cultivated areas in Afghanistan and it's primarily producing
opium right now. So as we secure areas, we have found these
programs that the governor is leading are more successful in
secured areas. In insecure areas, they have little success.
So as we extend security to the population of Central
Helmand, we anticipate greater success in terms of the effects
of these programs.
As to the specific success we've seen, Frank, I know you've
got some recent observations on that.
Mr. Ruggiero. I'll just give a quick anecdote on a
conversation I had in Marjah about 15 days after the military
operations had kicked off.
President Karzai had come down with General McChrystal to
do a shura and they did it in a local mosque and I couldn't
attend because it was in the mosque. So I sat outside with a
bunch of--maybe about 20 or 30 farmers who were anywhere from
the age of 20 to 40 and that was the only--the question they
had on their mind was what are you going to do about our poppy
crop. A lot of them will plant many types of crops, but they'll
plant a little bit of poppy so they have a cash crop available
to them, and I think the general theme was don't come in and
eradicate the poppy because you'll lose the support of the
people very quickly.
I think that's what we've learned from a more broader
perspective, that the eradication effort from a
counterinsurgency point of view was not successful. So we have
implemented a series of programs on interdiction, alternative
livelihoods that I think, as General Nicholson said, the
general theory is that in unsecured areas equal more poppy
cultivation, the more secure an area becomes, the less poppy
cultivation you have because the government is there; coalition
forces are there.
Senator Cardin. I agree with what you just said, and I
imagine that the circumstances are better than they would
otherwise been absent our efforts.
It would be helpful if we could quantitate that somehow.
One of the things that we've been asking for in Congress is a
way to judge progress and to the extent that you can document
rather than just give individual stories, I think it would be
helpful to us.
None of us expect overnight we're going to change or
eliminate the illegal drugs coming out of Afghanistan, but we
have to make progress and if you can demonstrate that, I think
that would be helpful.
The followup question is one with this local governor's
actions. It only can succeed if they eliminate corruption which
is reported pretty widespread among government officials in
Afghanistan.
Now we can talk about the centralized authority and the
corruption problems within the central government. I'd like to
get to the local community, particularly in the Helmand area,
as to whether you have reason to believe that the programs that
are being implemented locally with the local population are
credible or whether they are just taking funds that otherwise
could be used for the economic progress in that region and
funding their corrupt activities.
Mr. Ruggiero. I think you are correct in pointing out that
corruption is a major issue across southern Afghanistan and
Afghanistan generally. I think President Karzai has signed a
draft--he's working on a draft executive order for an
anticorruption decree that he released several months ago.
We're doing a lot of work in Kabul on building the capability
of the central government to address corruption issues. I can
go into the specifics on those, if you like.
From the Regional-South perspective, over the past year we
have started to see some activity in prosecuting corrupt
actors. There's actually the head of the Afghan Border Police
in Kandahar. If you control the roads in southern Afghanistan
or the border crossing points, that's a way to make money, as
you can imagine. He was arrested and he was just prosecuted,
given a 10-year--an 8-year sentence and several hundred
thousand dollar fine. So we are seeing some progress, nascent
though it is, on the government prosecuting corruption cases.
Senator Cardin. And I just--again, we're looking for
progress and the way to start breaking corruption is to work
with the local officials and to reward the community based upon
progress being made and not being just taken for personal gain
by a few, and it would be helpful--I know the efforts you're
making with Mr. Karzai and we certainly are watching that very
closely, and I would, not today, but appreciate the specific
information that you're referring to, but it would also be
helpful to know the efforts we're making at the local
government levels.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Cardin. Mr. Sedney, what
has the civilian leadership of the Defense Department gleaned
from this process thus far? Are you folks satisfied with the
resourcing as well as the partnership on the civilian side? If
not, what do we need to do?
Mr. Sedney. I'd have to say at this point in terms of the
cooperation, as laid out by Mr. Ruggiero and the cooperation
both with the Afghan civilians and with the United States and
international civilians, the Marjah operation has been
exemplary in terms of that level of cooperation, starting in
the planning period and continuing through now, that as soon as
security was put in place, Frank was able to deploy civilians
with our Marines and they became active right away.
USAID was able to come out and put programs into place
again immediately after security was put in place and that's
still ongoing right now. So we are learning lessons on how to
do it well, but in terms of the level of cooperation, I'd say
it's been exemplary.
You mentioned in your statement that this was the biggest
military operation since 2001. I would add to that it's the
biggest civil-military operation ever and that civil-military
part of it is something that we will need to build on.
That said, we also are learning----
The Chairman. Is there any dramatic missteps that need to
be cured or gaps that you think need to be filled as we, sort
of now, look toward Kandahar and elsewhere?
Mr. Sedney. I think the biggest area, and we knew this
going in, this would be the biggest area of problem and Mr.
Ruggiero mentioned it earlier, is the capacity of Afghan
Government civilians to come in and carry out the local
governance effort.
The number of those civilians, and General Nicholson
mentioned this, too, who are trained, capable, and willing to
go to those areas does not match at all the demand. We are
working already with the Afghan Government. Director General
Popal that Mr. Ruggiero mentioned has a training program that
they're starting up to have for an accelerated training of
local government officials but that is a serious area of
concern for success in Marjah, success in Kandahar, success
anywhere in Afghanistan, is Afghan civilian capacity.
The Chairman. Mr. Ruggiero, I know I promoted you earlier
to Ambassador. I hope you can survive that down at the
Department.
Mr. Ruggiero. I appreciated that. Thank you.
The Chairman. I was just trying to help you out with
Holbrooke when you go in there, you know, but maybe it has the
opposite effect. I'll have to reexamine that one.
There are six key districts in Central Helmand River Valley
that matter. You understand that. Marjah and Nadali sort of
represented the last two that we needed to move in on, but we
did--Garmsir and Naway, I guess, previously and that's had some
time now to take hold.
When I was there, we did a shura with a lot of local
leaders and I was struck by their anxiety over the need for
just basics, you know: ``We want water.'' ``We want, you know,
crops, different irrigation, different things like that.''
Where do you think we are now with that? If we went back
there and did an analysis, another shura, would they stand up
and say the same thing or are they in a better place?
Mr. Ruggiero. I think in places like Naway, Garmsir,
Argindab, where we have been for roughly, at least in Naway and
Argindab, about a year, Garmsir a little longer, I think if you
ask the people are you in a better position vis-a-vis the
government delivering some very basic rudimentary services, I
think their answer would be ``Yes,'' that they have received
more service delivery from their local government.
A lot of that is based on the capability that we bring to
the table, working at the district level. So that raises the
question of transition. How do you transition out of this? But
I think at this point they would probably say that they are--
those basic needs are being met better than they were a year
ago.
The Chairman. Are you doing that kind of analysis? I mean,
are we in fact measuring that? Isn't that pretty important to
keep track of?
Mr. Ruggiero. It is. The way we have tried to----
The Chairman. Do we do that systematically?
Mr. Ruggiero. The way we've tried to do it--we do do it
systematically. The way we specifically try to do it in RC-
South is we try to define what success at the district level
looks like and we do that in terms of when we want to
transition, what would be the hallmark of how we transition the
governance side of the equation at the district level.
So you would need a district governor that works, that
lives in the district center, refurbished district center.
You'd need a local representative shura that represents the
vast majority of the people, villages in that district. You
would need at least a handful of key ministry capabilities that
would be in the district. You'd need an effective chief of
police, district level chief of police. You would need an
effective NDS, which is basically the Afghan National
Intelligence Service.
When you have that capability, which is easily
quantifiable, in the district, I think you have some basic
level of--that would be what success looks like, I think, for
us on the governance side.
The Chairman. Now, I mentioned earlier in my opening
comments this issue of the refugees and obviously I think
Governor Mangal was sort of put in charge of handling that with
respect to Marjah and Nadali.
What--which in effect meant there wasn't a lot provided for
them. I mean, I think that's the judgment people have come to.
There are reports that the situation in Kandahar is becoming
increasingly dangerous for civilians, and that the Taliban and
criminal groups are assassinating and beating people publicly
and basically trying to intimidate the population.
I also understand that our troops, you know, the NATO and
ISAF troop presence is really in part being blamed for these
attacks on civilians at this point in time and people are
somewhat angry still about the perceived support of either our
country or our troops, et cetera, for Hamad Karzai, et cetera.
Can you speak to his standing, No. 1, and to the civilian
intimidation levels and sort of status of Kandahar without
going into any aspects of our operations but just what is it
today? What are we looking at?
Mr. Ruggiero. The Taliban has unleashed a series--an
assassination campaign inside of Kandahar City and these are
literally two-motorcycle/two-men teams that go around the city
to attempt--their objective is to assassinate Afghan Government
officials.
I think the Taliban understands what our strategy is. Our
strategy is to build the governance capacity of the Afghan
Government and for it to be able to deliver some basic
services.
So what they do is they target those Afghan officials that
we're trying to bolster and they also target our implementing
partners on the USAID side who really are the entity that help
the government deliver services. So these assassination squads,
there's bombings aimed at our implementing partners, they
really are going after what they understand to be the key to
our strategy and the key to the strategy again is to build the
government up so that it can provide basic services in this
fight between the insurgents and the government.
The Chairman. Senator Lugar.
Senator Lugar. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. According to recent
ISAF figures, there are now estimated to be 113,000 trained
Afghan National Army soldiers and 109,000 persons trained for
service in the Afghan National Police.
What is your estimate of how many of those police and
soldiers who have been trained still remain? The reason I ask
is that there were fragmentary reports of training,
particularly in the police area. Many of the persons being
trained are illiterate and have real background difficulties.
Additionally, many seem to have disappeared or left the ANP,
and I'm just curious as to how stable those figures are and
whether they are accurate.
General Nicholson. Yes, sir. And at the SIBMIL Rock Drill
that Mr. Sedney mentioned, we had discussion on this issue and
Minister Atmar's comments regarding the police were
illuminating.
As you mentioned in your remarks, sir--the Army--those are
trained soldiers. However, the police do not--are not all
trained yet. In fact, up to upward of 70 percent have not been
trained. Minister Atmar expressed his concerns as he and
Minister Wortek described their situation to General Petraeus
and Ambassador Holbrooke.
Minister Atmar talked about the model in the police is not
recruit, train, and deploy; rather, the soldiers--the police
officers are already deployed but in many cases they don't have
adequate training and equipping.
So it is a case of going out to that 70 percent of his
force, bringing them back in for vetting, drug testing, some
sort of background check to the extent that that's possible,
and then training them for 8 weeks and then redeploying them
out now as a trained police officer with a partnered unit and
with a mentorship team, and this basic critical path of
bringing in these police that are currently untrained, training
them and redeploying them he views, and we agree, as essential
to getting this capability up and reducing the attrition that
you're referring to.
Another--two other data points I'd mention, sir. In
December we saw some increases in pay offered and we've seen
some very positive response in terms of retention and
enlistment. In fact, we've exceeded most of our enlistment
goals since these pay incentives have been introduced.
And the second thing, I just received a note from General
Caldwell, the commander of our NATO Training Mission-
Afghanistan, today and the pay-to-bank system where police
officers, for example, have visibility of their pay being
deposited and now they're doing an experimental program where
this information is conveyed to them via text message on a cell
phone and it enables them to have a greater degree of control
over their pay.
He and his Afghan partners believe it has great potential
to then reinforce--reduce absenteeism which in many cases is a
result of a soldier must take his pay to his family somewhere
else in the country and then return to duty.
The final piece on retention I'd mention, we've referred to
the Afghan National Civil Order Police a couple of times as
being the most effective and credible Afghan Police Force. They
receive about a 16-week training program, highly trained and
very effective, but we've had a high attrition in that force
and we're addressing that through a number of ways.
One is the pay incentives I referred to. Another is an
operational rotational cycle. That means that they're not
continuously deployed for their entire enlistment. So they can
count on a period of retraining, rest, and then being
redeployed.
So this program, very comprehensive, is just getting
underway and we view this as something that's going to reduce
the attrition that we're seeing in our highest-quality police
forces.
Senator Lugar. Yes, sir.
Mr. Sedney. Senator, if I can add three points. First,
Minister Atmar, with our cooperation, has put in place a
program called the Personal Asset Inventory which has gone out
and done biometrics, interviews, inventory of assets in order
to see how much money people have, and it obviously has a
corruption angle to it, as well.
But that combination of factors, they have as of the end of
April, they had reached 90,000 of the 99,000 police who are on
the rolls. That doesn't mean that those police are always there
working every day, but it does mean that at least on one day
they showed up and they got biometric information. We had the
background information that will allow us to continue to
monitor them.
Second, on the training and the performance of the police,
we have trained many police and there are many police actually
who are out there working effectively in Afghanistan as well as
the corrupt ones that we hear so much about, and Minister Atmar
was very articulate on that, and the police also suffer a
higher casualty rate than the Afghan National Army. The
casualty rate for the police, the attacks on the police are
very high.
But going back to the performance and I'll follow up on the
answer I gave to Senator Kerry in terms of challenges, in the
end it doesn't matter how well we train the police, it doesn't
matter how well we mentor, and it doesn't matter how well we
partner. If you put police out into a system where rule of law
and governance are corrupt, where there's a corrupt judge, a
corrupt prosecutor, a corrupt corrections system, and a corrupt
system around them, those police will become corrupt.
So we are working very hard to train the police, but it's a
very difficult problem because it's not a one system. It's a
system of systems that makes the police work.
And then, finally, one additional point on the ANCOP. While
they have performed very well and are the leading edge of
Afghan police, one contributing reason to that turnover that
General Nicholson mentioned is they had never been partnered
before and in the last month we have begun partnering the
Afghan Civil Order Police with United States Special Forces and
we believe that will also provide additional leadership and
incentive to help reduce that turnover rate.
Senator Lugar. Let me just comment that at least we're told
that eventually we want to get to 170,000 Afghan National Army
soldiers and 130,000 police officers.
Both of you have given excellent testimony as to the
difficulties of this training and you have said you now have a
good deal of information on 900,000 police officers through the
Personal Asset Inventory Program. Maybe you are able to keep
track of those.
But I'm wondering, first of all, the nature of the
timeframe in which we get to somewhere in the range of the
170,000 and 130,000. This may be a more difficult question
beyond any of our competence to answer now. But, this question
will be increasingly asked by the American public.
Furthermore, I'm curious as to the costs we have and will
continue to incur as we pursue these goals. How much of that
cost can be borne by the Afghan Government in subsequent years?
When we had this discussion with regard to Iraq, it was
always the promise of oil and/or other revenues covering the
costs of such operations if things could be pulled together.
But in Afghanistan, there is not that kind of promise. As we
have our timetables for potential withdrawal of American
forces, the idea is clearly that in the event of the execution
of these timetables there would be an Afghan Army and police
officers to provide the civil government and the provincial
governments with the sustained support necessary to ensure
stability--but with what wherewithal?
What is the current level of dedicated funds, and how long
can the American people sustain this level of funding, in your
estimate, after our troops have left?
Mr. Sedney. Senator, that's an excellent question and one
that we pay a lot of attention to.
First of all, you're right. The Afghan National Army and
Afghan National Police currently are--the cost of those are
borne almost exclusively by the international community,
primarily by the United States, although a number of other
nations contribute.
The Afghan contribution to their own security is in Afghan
terms quite high. Of the approximately, I believe, $1.3 billion
in revenue of the Afghan National Government last year, they
spent about 35 percent of that, actually closer to 40 percent
of that, on supporting their own Afghan security forces. So 40
percent of their national revenue went to that.
However, that's well short of what it will cost to maintain
the Army and the police forces that we have now and that we're
building toward. So clearly there will be a need extending into
the future for Afghanistan to receive continued support for the
sustainment of those forces.
But I would point out that if you compare the costs of
Afghan security forces to the cost of United States forces, any
of our international partners, it is much, much less. So from
that standpoint, having Afghan Security Forces in charge of
security for their own country makes sense not just from a
political and social point of view but also from an economic
point of view.
Finally, I'd point out that Afghan Government revenues in
the last year have gone up by 20 percent. There is a lot of
economic potential in Afghanistan. It doesn't have the oil
wealth in Iraq, but from minerals to manufacturing, there are
large areas of economic hope for Afghanistan but that hope can
only be enabled if we put the security into place that enables
the economy to flourish.
Senator Lugar. I appreciate that response. I'm hopeful that
our government will begin to work with the Afghan Government on
what would be called a business plan because, as you pointed
out, there's economic growth occurring there for various
reasons. Hopefully, we can see more of that. Otherwise I see a
scenario down the trail where after the arduous training
exercises and grassroots efforts you've described, the
wherewithal to continue to pay for all of this will simply not
be there. Then, at that point, we have a different set of
problems.
Now we might rationalize that we're going to have to have
security forces in Afghanistan perpetually. If the Afghans are
not going to pay for it, we will have to, and it's better to
pay for the use of Afghan forces than ours. However, whether
that argument can be sustained if we were to have this hearing
5 years from now is a problematic issue. This is why we better,
even as we're going through the arduous training business,
begin thinking through the business plan of how this is to be
sustained.
I appreciate the thinking you've already given to this, but
I would encourage a really great deal more.
Thank you very much.
The Chairman. Senator Risch.
Senator Risch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a question
I'd like all three of you to comment on, if you would, briefly.
You know, I've never had any doubt that we could accomplish
what we wanted to accomplish there; that is, with our
objectives of standing up an Army, standing up a government,
standing up a police, but when one travels over there and you
talk to people, they tell you the right things, you listen to
what they say, and it sounds good, but you get the queasy
feeling that maybe they either aren't able to sustain it or
they don't really have the same desire to sustain it that we as
Americans do and setting it up is one thing. Sustainability is
something else and I had no doubt that we'd get to where we
wanted to be as far as standing it up, but I got to tell you,
you come away from that with a really queasy feeling about
their ability.
So I'd like maybe the three of you to comment on that.
Mr. Ruggiero. I would just point to--I think your points
are well taken. The question of sustainability and who do you
transition to is the primary question you have to be able to
answer over the next couple years.
I would point to the most recent operations, Marjah and
what we're going to do in Kandahar. We've approached this in
kind of a different way to make sure that this is an Afghan
Government effort. This is the Afghan Government that is
extending its authority over these areas that are either
ungoverned as in Marjah or governed to a pretty negative degree
where you have a Taliban infiltration presence.
The planning that's been done for a lot of these operations
has been done in partnership with the Afghan Government. So I
think we would take or I certainly take some comfort in the
fact that we seem to have turned a corner in terms of how we do
these operations and that these have to be the Afghan
Government extending its authority with the assistance of the
coalition.
I think in the past you had operations that weren't
necessarily like that. I don't know if my colleagues want to
comment.
General Nicholson. Sir, like Frank, your points are well
taken and this will be an Afghan solution and certainly at the
end of the day, they are the ones that have to restore some
equilibrium to their society and it's not insignificant to
consider, you know, they're on their fifth form of government
in 30 years. They've had 30 years of war. The normal social
governance mechanisms that have been resilient for centuries
have been badly fractured by assassinations, by war, by
criminal networks, by systems of patronage.
So this is, in many ways, a traumatized situation and so
helping them gain the time to restore a balance is important.
I'm encouraged personally, having spent parts of each of the
last 4 years in Afghanistan, that there are enough Afghans who
really want this to succeed that they can in fact arrive at a
stable solution.
Specifically, we've talked a little bit about Governor
Mangal here today, has been governor in three different
provinces in Afghanistan. In each of those provinces he's
brought systems and capabilities that weren't there before and
restored the credibility of the government to some extent.
We see tribes and this perhaps is one of the dangers of
overfocusing on certain of the more difficult areas, like
Marjah, and seeing all of Afghanistan through the lens of
Marjah as opposed to looking at some of the other areas and the
one I'd mention would be Nangarhar province, in the east, a
Pashtun area, certainly a problematic area. It was the last
place that some of the al-Qaeda elements in Afghanistan were.
The province itself is enjoying tremendous prosperity
because of increased trade with Pakistan through the Torcum Gab
Kyber Pass area. Recently, the Shinwari Tribe, one of the
largest tribes, I believe the largest tribe in Nangarhar, made
a public declaration against the Taliban but also one that
asserted they wanted to see less government corruption.
So this tribal declaration was very interesting because it
is not just about an individual, like a qualified governor or a
qualified military commander. It's about an entire tribe of
significance taking a stand against the enemy but also
identifying what they expect out of their own government. So it
is data points like those that have given me the belief that
the Afghans can do this and certainly I've had plenty of
moments, as you have experienced, sir, where you wonder how a
particular situation is going to turn out, no question about
it.
Helping them and giving them the space and time to work
through this and then assistance in key areas is critical,
though the one comment I'd make, and Senator Kerry and I were
discussing Greg Mortonson's work prior to the hearing,
education is extremely important across Afghan society.
We've had a real focus on primary education. There is a
need for secondary, vocational, and higher education to help
them grow the human capacity to enable them to move forward as
a society and there's a real desire to embrace that.
So I just wanted to mention that, but I share your
concerns, sir, but I also have, just based on personal contacts
with the Afghans, do believe they can do this and that they
want to do this and that there is a critical mass of Afghans
that really want this for their society, enough so to make this
happen.
Mr. Sedney. Senator, I've shared your concerns and been
even more worried. I've been involved in our Afghan efforts
since 2002 when I went out as the Embassy decharge and deputy
chief of mission and have been working on Afghanistan in a
number of capacities since then.
Over those 8 years I have at times shared the doubts that
you have. However, I would say today I am more optimistic than
I've ever been about the future of Afghanistan and it goes to
many of the factors that Mr. Ruggiero and General Nicholson
mentioned to you, as well.
And, first of all, it is the continued effort by Afghans
and ranging from ministers in Kabul to governors to people at
the national governance and districts, as well, where there are
many areas of failure, there are also many and, I believe,
growing areas of success and the dedication of those, and next
week when President Karzai comes, he'll bring a number of
ministers that I'm sure all of you have met who have been there
for years who have dedicated their lives to moving forward and
I believe that together with them we are.
But even more than that, General Nicholson mentioned
education. Eight years ago there were no girls and very few
boys in school. Eight years later with that focus on primary
education, when I've gone back to Afghanistan, I've talked to
the people who are 13-14-year-olds now, who have gone through
that education. Their vision for themselves, their hope for
themselves is not to become Taliban extremists. They want to
become engineers. They want to become doctors. They want to
become lawyers.
So we have literally millions of young people who are the
future of Afghanistan and that is something that I find is both
inspiring and impressive and it is a hope that I believe will
be fulfilled with the leadership that we mentioned before, the
assistance from the international community but, most of all,
by the hard work of the Afghans themselves.
Senator Risch. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I certainly
hope that your optimism, all three of you, comes to fruition.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Risch.
Senator Shaheen, do you have any more questions?
Senator Shaheen. I do. I want to go back to a couple of
things that have been raised by others with respect to the
potential for reintegrating some of the Taliban.
As we're looking at Kandahar and that as the home of
President Karzai, the place where he probably has or one would
think he has as much influence as anywhere in the country, is
this an opportunity to begin to look at potential reintegration
there and is that being discussed as part of the strategy for
how we turn around Kandahar?
Mr. Ruggiero. As I said earlier, Senator, I don't think you
were in the room, I apologize for that, the reintegration
guidance is really an Afghan-led effort and President Karzai's
administration just cleared off on that guidance and that
guidance will have to come down their chain of command to the
provincial governor in Kandahar to the mayor to the district
governors because it will really be them that will lead any
effort on reintegration in the upcoming Kandahar operations.
I would suspect that there will be opportunities for
reintegration in the areas that are most kinetic at this point.
So you have parts of Kandahar that are generally controlled by
the Taliban, not in the city itself but in the districts that
matter to the west of the city. So I would not be surprised to
see some reintegration opportunities in those districts.
Senator Shaheen. Anybody have anything to add to that?
General Nicholson. I would just agree with Frank and would
add that reintegration is really a part of the Afghan tradition
and again I mentioned this while you were out of the room,
ma'am, but when you look at the government and the army and the
police today, you see many cases where you've got former
mujahideen and former Communists now together in the
government, in the same ministry, in the same military unit
working together toward a more stable and prosperous
Afghanistan.
So the notion of reintegrating at the upset brothers, as
they refer to them, is something that's very much within their
tradition and attainable.
Senator Shaheen. Thank you. When we were there last year
with a group of Senators, one of the acknowledgements was the
fact that there are a number of NATO partners in this effort
and there are different teams in various parts of the country
in charge of the PRTs and that their approach is not always the
same.
What kinds of steps have been taken to better coordinate
the approaches and all of those PRTs and the efforts that we're
engaging in with our NATO allies?
Mr. Ruggiero. At the Kabul level, Ambassador Mark Sedwell
has been appointed as the senior NATO civilian in Afghanistan.
Mark is the former British Ambassador to Afghanistan. So his
position, his taking that NATO position will be very helpful in
terms of coordinating U.S.--I'm sorry--international civilian
assistance.
What you had happen in the south because of the large
American inflow of civilians is that what were once a Canadian
PRT in Kandahar, Dutch PRT in Orizkon, British PRT in Helmand,
we have put so many American civilians in those places and then
further down range at the district level, that those are in
fact now international PRTs. So the level of control--control
is probably the wrong word. The level of coordination that you
have to meet the military and civilian objectives across the
PRTs is far greater than it was a year ago.
Senator Shaheen. And I certainly applaud the appointment of
the civilian coordinator. I think that's a wonderful step
forward and very much appreciate that.
I want to go back to the metrics issue and measures and you
all have talked about a number of ways that we're looking at
determining whether success is happening on the ground.
Do we have, I don't want to say a list, but essentially I
guess that's what I'm asking. Is there a list of what we look
at specifically? So for Marjah, when we said, OK, we've cleared
the Taliban of Marjah. Are there a list of factors that we use
to determine specifically whether there's enough security in
place to be able to say that, and as we think about holding an
area, again is there--are there specific measures that we look
at and say, OK, we're now in a position to move to the next
phase, and is that something that is shared with everybody?
One of the things that raised this question for me was
reading a recent Time Magazine piece about the effort to
rebuild is at the Peer Mohammed School outside of----
Mr. Ruggiero. Yes, it was the Joe Klein piece on Zhari.
Senator Shaheen. Yes. I was particularly interested because
the captain had gone to the University of New Hampshire. So I
always look for those New Hampshire connections.
But I think it raised the significant challenges there, but
what wasn't clear to me is the story suggested that the
operation was endorsed and then there was some questions about
whether it was going to go forward and so how much is everybody
down the chain of command aware of what those measures are and
operating on them cooperatively?
General Nicholson. Ma'am, one of the points, and this is
subjective in a sense, conceptually what we're doing, of
course, is to separate the enemy from the people in an area and
then enable this connection to occur between the government and
the people.
So gauging the effectiveness of that, there's a
subjectivity to it in certain areas. We are looking--there are
certain metrics that we track. We're continually looking at
them to make sure they're the right metrics and we--for
example, there are certain metrics that are not useful in
gauging our success.
Let me give you an example. We will see an increase in
violence in some areas. We introduced the 30,000 troops. We're
going to see an increase in significant activities. So there
will be an increase in casualties in all likelihood.
But within that, looking at the trends, for example, on
counter-IED work, IEDs cause the majority of our casualties.
Looking at and tracking closely our turn-ins of IEDs and how
many of those are being done by the civilians is an indicator
to us of an increasing connection between the government and
the people in that they're turning in IEDs. So this is an
example of some of the kinds of things we try to track closely.
We have a series of metrics that track the effectiveness of
the Afghan security forces. We talked a little bit about
retention, recruiting, and so forth. We're looking closely at
those metrics that would indicate an increasing connection
between the government. Again, those are little tougher to get.
It's not simply about how much money we spend or however the
survey instruments are useful and where we have a baseline and
then can use that baseline to work against. We are doing that.
I think that it's a work in progress, it's fair to say, at
getting the right metrics, but we're working very hard at it
and I know we've of late--of course, we're submitting certain
reports to Congress, the 12/30 report, the 12/31 have been very
important in trying to capture and convey our progress. So in
fact, David Sedney was just on the Hill this week talking to
staffers about the recent 12/30 report and 12/31.
So it is something we're continually working at to get it
right and we recognize the criticality of it and being able to
gauge our success as we go forward.
David, I don't know if you have anything you would like to
add on the refinement of the metrics.
Mr. Sedney. Well, the only thing I'd add is that there is a
legislative requirement for metrics and the National Security
Council has presented those and we are reviewing--the
administration's reviewing the congressional response to that
and we are--the administration is working broadly.
As General Nicholson said, we also had the 12/30 report
which we submitted to Congress last week. So there's broad
metrics we have.
In terms of the specific metrics for evaluating individual
operations and any comments about the school and the Joe Klein
article, Frank would be the one who's on the scene and would be
able to answer any questions there.
Thank you.
Mr. Ruggiero. Just in terms of that article, I think I
mentioned earlier that Zhari is a district that--again, not to
get into the upcoming operations, but just as a statement of
act, Zhari is a district just to the west of Kandahar City, and
it is an area that is largely under the control of the Taliban.
If you wanted to compare any part of the Kandahar operation
to what happened in Marjah, it would most likely be in Zhari.
So that captain has some real challenges out there. I've met
with him several times and he's just got some challenges.
Senator Shaheen. Tell him we appreciate it.
Mr. Ruggiero. Will do.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Shaheen.
Just a couple of quick summary questions.
Mr. Ruggiero, General, as you look at the picture now and
you've kind of worked at this thing, what gives you the
greatest hope, and what is the biggest hurdle? What keeps you
awake the most and worries you?
General Nicholson. Sir, the greatest hope in me resides in
the individual Afghans and the tribes and groups that I've had
the opportunity to work with over the past 4 years.
I believe that a significant number of them--a sufficient
number of them--want this to succeed and therefore it is
possible. They want a better way of life for themselves and
their children. Universally, wherever we go, whether it's a
village in Kunar or a shura in an urban area down in Kandahar,
you see a universal desire to improve their condition, to put
this 30 years of war behind them.
I think it's fair to say that they also see this as their
last best chance in some cases to really effect those changes
within their society. I see tremendous hope in the young people
in Afghanistan, the explosion of cell phone usage, the desire
for education.
One anecdote I've used as kind of symptomatic of this is,
as you'll recall, the tragedy in December 2008 when we had acid
thrown in the faces of school girls by Taliban in Kandahar City
and the reaction to that was telling. These are young women in
Kandahar on television unveiled, pointing their fingers at the
camera, saying you will not deny me the right to get an
education, and while they're afraid and concerned, there's also
a burning desire to improve their lot and to move forward for
themselves and their society and that's what gives me the
greatest hope.
My greatest concerns are the corrupt practices that have
been mentioned. It's not the enemy that concerns me as much as
the ability of the government to connect with the people and
the ability of the government to enhance its legitimacy to the
point that the population of Afghanistan wants their
governance, and again I see positive indicators there, as well.
I've, you know, mentioned Governor Mangal, but there's many
other great Afghan civil servants and especially in the
military and in the police who have seen--who really at some
degree of personal risk, be it political or even physical risk,
are willing to step out and do the right thing.
So again, it's those individual Afghans that I've had the
privilege of working with and the Afghan society that I've had
the chance to interact with that gives me the greatest hope
that we'll move forward.
The Chairman. Thank you, General.
Mr. Ruggiero.
Mr. Ruggiero. I would agree with General Nicholson. It's
the bravery of the Afghans to take on this challenge and I'll
just give you a story of something that happened in the past 5
or 6 days.
The Mayor of Kandahar, at great personal risk, we're trying
to get him to make sure that the shuras in the city are more
representative. So he went out to Subdistrict 6 in Kandahar
City and he went there with the district governor of Argandab
because this was a point in the city, a weak point where the
Afghan Government doesn't really control it directly and there
were Taliban had infiltrated in there and were launching
attacks back into Argandab.
He went out there at great personal risk and he removed the
subdistrict governor who was there who was ineffective, put in
place, called for a more representative shura to try to get at
some of the causes of the reason why the Taliban had come in.
So just an example of the great bravery. His deputy was
assassinated 2 weeks before that. So the bravery and the
commitment of some of the Afghans is very impressive.
The greatest concern I think I have is the issue of
capacity on the Afghan side. There is an American speed of
doing things and we can go in with a battalion of Marines or a
battalion of Army soldiers and United States civilians and we
can have an effect in a district without a doubt. In the end,
though, you have to--this has to be the Afghan process. This
has to be--we have to operate at Afghan speed.
I think that calls for patience in this effort and I know
that that's a challenge. So I think on my side, the greatest
concern is capacity on the Afghan side.
The Chairman. Well, fair enough. Those are good warnings
and good encouragements and let me just say how very much we
appreciate and respect the work that you all are engaged in. It
is tough work. I know it's hard to put the troops out there and
see them take the risks they are taking and you always bear
that burden, too, as we all do, but we are very, very
appreciative to you and the stakes are high in many, many ways.
So we thank you for helping us to understand a little
better where we are and where we are going and we will continue
to engage with you as we go forward.
Senator Lugar, do you have any additional remarks?
Senator Lugar. Just confirm we all feel thanks and we
appreciate your testimony.
The Chairman. On that note, gentlemen, we'll let you get
back to work, a different kind of work.
Thank you very much. We stand adjourned. Thank you.
[Whereupon the hearing was adjourned at 11:33 a.m.]
Additional Material Submitted for the Record
Responses of BG John Nicholson to Questions Submitted for the Record by
Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr.
Question. A critical component of General McChrystal's strategy is
to mitigate the Taliban's ability to influence the Afghan population.
The initial phases of counterinsurgency operations in Marjah were
designed to separate the Taliban from the local populous and facilitate
the legitimate government. According to recent news reports, however,
young men in Afghan villages increasingly are supporting the Taliban.
With nearly 50 percent of the male population between the ages of 15
and 29, this could provide the Taliban ample fighters for the
insurgency.
To what extent has the Taliban's ability to control and
recruit from the local population been reduced or eliminated?
Answer. One of the major contributors to the insurgency is a basic
lack of options and opportunities afforded to the population,
specifically to young males in the age group of 15-29. Coalition forces
continue to get at this issue by working on a four-pronged approach
that includes ensuring a safe and secure environment, bringing back
basic government institutions and functions, providing and supporting
basic services, and working to develop economic opportunities. Through
taking this holistic approach, jobs and opportunities have opened up in
both the government and commercial sectors; providing more
opportunities and options to those who otherwise would not have any.
In Marjah specifically, four major bazaars and over 100 new shops
have opened up, the District Governors have taken a leading role, the
councils are now functioning, students have been returning to schools,
many clinics have reopened with two new ones being built, all within
the timeframe between 1 February 2010 and 1 June 2010. As improvements
along all four areas continue to increase, so will opportunities for
the youth of Afghanistan and alternatives, such as working with the
insurgency, will become much less attractive.
Question. A recent report by the International Council on Security
and Development on Operation Moshtarak in Marjah reveals some
disheartening information regarding its perception by Afghans.
According to the report, 61 percent of those interviewed feel more
negative about NATO forces than before the military offensive was
conducted. According to that survey, the operation does not seem to be
successful at winning the hearts and minds of the local Afghans.
Is this an accurate account of the current feelings of the
local population toward coalition forces?
Does this also mean that we are failing to meet a
fundamental tenet of the new strategy?
Answer. The survey done by the International Council on Security
and Development (ICOS) was a telling survey, but only represented a
very small contingent of the population within the Helmand and Kandahar
provinces. From Helmand province alone, only 314 Afghan men were
questioned in the survey. This does not make the report invalid, but it
does bring to light that it is only a microcosm of the overall
attitudes and perceptions in the area.
General McChrystal briefed in his 1 June report that during a
period of increased operational tempo, there would be an increase in
the amount of violence before the government and Afghan confidence
begin to increase and violence began to drop again. This survey was
taken during a period of that increased level of violence and likely
was reflective of the populations' attitudes as a result of that. Now
that the security portion of the operation has begun to subside and the
civil and strategic process is being made, those perceptions would
likely be different if polled again today.
Question. According to the International Council on Security and
Development survey, 59 percent of those interviewed believed the
Taliban will return to Marjah after the Operation, which would be
devastating to women's rights in the region.
How do women in Marjah perceive Operation Moshtarak?
Answer. Using the strategy of ``Clear, Hold, and Build,'' ISAF is
ensuring that once an area is secure, there is little opportunity for a
reemergence of the insurgency. Marjah is currently in the Hold/Build
phase of the operation, and although some insurgent attacks still
occur, ISAF has been effective in clearing the insurgent threats. A
significant Taliban return to the area is unlikely.
Women's rights in Afghanistan remain a key issue and a top priority
of ISAF and the administration. Secretary of State, recently
reemphasized this on her recent trip to Kabul when she said, ``I have
consistently raised with all levels of the Afghan Government, with
everyone else from the EU to ISAF and the U.N., the absolute necessity
of our standing firmly together in our demands that women not be
marginalized."
One of the ways the military is working to better connect with the
women of the Afghan population is with the new concept of the Female
Engagement Teams (FET). The Marines have been using FETs in Helmand
province with some results, claiming that local women are more likely
to talk about some of the real issues in the area than the men are,
once that trust is gained.
Question. A new police force was unveiled during the Marjah
operations, the Afghan National Civil Order Police (ANCOP). This
security force, as with the other forces, faces a strong test as to
whether they can maintain law and order as well as reduce corruption
and extortion. Historically, corruption and extortion are two of the
biggest complaints lodged by the local population.
How have the Afghan National Police forces performed their
security functions and are they achieving the desired results?
Answer. The ANCOP are a proven national police force that have been
in existence for more than 5 years. The ANCOP force was modeled as a
gendarmerie-type of national police intended to operate anywhere within
Afghanistan. They are the most respected segment of the Afghan National
Police (ANP) in Afghanistan. Their superior reputation is based on more
stringent selection criteria, additional quality training they receive,
and proven performance.
There are currently 5,197 assigned ANCOP with 1,586 in training. As
a nationally deployable police force they are used in the most
challenging environments to support priority missions. They do suffer a
high attrition rate in large part due to private security companies
(PSCs) luring them away with substantially greater offers of financial
remuneration. In the last 3 months, the ANCOP have had attrition rates
of 5.2 percent, 4.07 percent, and 2.26 percent. These rates are
decreasing however as NTM-A and the IJC in conjunction with the Afghan
Ministry of Interior (MOI) are implementing quality-of-life
initiatives.
The ANP in general and the ANCOP in particular, have made great
strides in maintaining law and order in areas where they receive
mentoring and sufficient support. There is already evidence that the
new MOI accession model of recruit, train, and assign has paid
dividends toward development of a more professional Afghan police
force. Additionally, a renewed focus on police development, coupled
with an infusion of professional police trainers from NATO and non-NATO
contributors, continues to show progress in all areas of Afghan police
development.
Question. As operations are expanding in Afghanistan, we are
continually reminded of the proliferation and lethality of improvised
explosive devices. IEDs have become the insurgents' weapon of choice
and are the deadliest weapon against our men and women in combat.
Can you please provide us with an update on what we are
doing to reduce insurgents' ability to manufacture, emplace,
and detonate these deadly weapons?
Answer. Reducing insurgents' ability to manufacture, emplace, and
detonate IEDs, while more effectively protecting our troops, is a top
priority for the Department of Defense (DOD). As the statistics
indicate, IEDs alone account for the
greatest number of U.S., coalition, and Afghan forces casualties in
Afghanistan--approximately 60 percent.
DOD has been pursuing a multifaceted approach to Counter-IED (C-
IED) operations, focusing efforts on improving intelligence collection,
fielding better equipment, expanding training and integrating systems
more coherently to address this complex threat holistically. The
establishment of the C-IED Senior Integration Group (CSIG) by the
Secretary of Defense in December 2009 has provided executive-level
oversight by establishing C-IED focus areas and synchronizing DOD,
interagency and international actions in support of these areas. The
Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) continues to facilitate industry
solutions and training programs to better prepare United States and
coalition forces deploying to Afghanistan.
General Petraeus' counterinsurgency strategy contains the seeds for
reaping the greatest potential gains in our C-IED fight. The central
pillar of his strategy is protecting the population. When we reach the
tipping point where the people of Afghanistan believe that we are
credibly providing for their security and are there to stay, they will
reject the Taliban, and provide us and our Afghan partners with the
human intelligence (HUMINT) needed to effectively neutralize the IED
threat.
Countering the IED menace with a comprehensive approach that
relentlessly attacks the entire IED network will remain a top priority
for DOD and our partners.
Response of BG John Nicholson to Question Submitted for the Record by
Senator John Barrasso
Question. Last year, the Taliban more than doubled the number of
homemade bombs used against U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. The
number of IED attacks is expected to climb further as the surge in
Afghanistan continues. During Operation Moshtarak, the United States
Marine Corps unveiled the Assault Breacher Vehicles (ABV) for route
clearance operations to ensure freedom of movement and continuity of
operations. It is my understanding that there are less than 10 ABVs in
theater which are in high demand.
Do we need more ABVs to clear minefields and potential IED
threats in Afghanistan?
Answer. The Joint Staff reviews and validates all new requests for
additional forces and equipment. The Joint Staff and Central Command
(CENTCOM), the combatant command responsible for the Afghanistan area
of operations, have not received any requests for additional ABVs. We
do not assess that there is an operational requirement for additional
ABVs at this time.
Assault Breacher Vehicles are designed for deliberate breaching of
complex obstacles. They best support clearing operations like the
recent Operation Moshtarek in Central Helmand River Valley,
Afghanistan. ABVs have limitations on use due to their size, weight,
and mobility, making them suitable for use in specific terrain
profiles; for example, ABVs are not well suited for urban and
restricted terrain. Numerous other specially designed armored wheeled
vehicles are in Afghanistan, or are on their way, that better support
mission requirements for route clearance.
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