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US Defense Secretary Visits Former Taliban Village, Still Calls Progress 'Fragile'

Al Pessin | Tabin, Afghanistan March 14, 2011

We started from a small base the U.S. Army calls Combat Outpost Kowall, and walked along the puddled road between the mud walls of village homes and farms. Curious children came out to see the foreigners. As we approached the square of Tabin village, the call to prayer rang out from a tinny speaker mounted in a tree.

"In this village, we've got 10 vetted and confirmed members of the ALP, the Afghan Local Police, and we've got nine candidates that he's also going to meet here. Those are the candidates that are going through the vetting process," said Colonel David Flynn, one of the senior U.S. officers in the area.

Flynn explained that the army brought security to the village by working closely with the Afghan military, fighting hard against Taliban elements, and establishing a relationship with tribal elders who agreed to allow their young men to join the new local police force.

This is the Argandab Valley, a former insurgent stronghold in Kandahar Province, south of Kabul, part of what is called the Taliban Heartland.

To be sure, there was heavy security for Secretary Gates' visit, with U.S. and Afghan soldiers posted along the way holding automatic rifles, patrols around the perimeter, and likely unseen airborne surveillance aircraft. Still, it was remarkable for the American secretary of defense, a man whose security is guarded nearly as closely as the president's, to be able to stroll into the village square, past armed Afghan troops, and chat with the elders about the Afghan Local Police program.

ELDER: The situation was very bad four months ago, very dangerous here. Then I was elected the malik [mayor] here. And once I was elected, I asked the people to give me people for the ALP program.

GATES: Are the elders satisfied with the way things are going?

TRANSLATOR: Yeah, they said the elders are all happy.

GATES: Good, good.

The operational commander of all coalition forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General David Rodriguez, came along. He helped plan and manage the Argandab campaign.

"We lost a lot of soldiers there early on. The governor got killed. The police chief was maimed. Now there are police out in the street. And Friday afternoon they [the people] are out picnicking in the river valley. Today, you saw children out. In a place that has no security, the children are never out," Rodriguez said.