Afghanistan’s other front
Midway through “Afghanistan: The Other War,” a “Frontline” offering tonight on PBS, a Canadian soldier expresses exasperation at the lack of help from villagers in fighting the Taliban.
The Canadians, part of the NATO force, have come to the village of Al Baq to keep it from becoming a Taliban stronghold. The locals know where Taliban fighters are hiding but pretend otherwise. “You can’t tell me 200 strangers come into this area -- [and] no one knows about it,” the Canadian says.
His sergeant urges patience. “I understand you don’t trust anybody,” says Sgt. Nicola Bascon.
The conversation took place in southern Afghanistan but easily could have occurred in Iraq, perhaps in Al Anbar province, where the U.S. Marines are assigned. Lack of cooperation from locals undercuts Western efforts in both countries.
The story told by “Afghanistan” is not altogether new -- a load of reporters in Iraq and Afghanistan have made the same point. Still, the effort pinpoints the frustration of waging a counter-insurgency. With good reason, locals are afraid that if they cooperate, they’ll be killed once the occupiers leave.
The detail provided in “Afghanistan” is vivid and first-rate. Correspondent Sam Kiley was embedded with a Canadian platoon in Al Baq and brought back an inside look that is candid and unsparing.
British Gen. David Richards, commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, apologizes to Afghan journalists for the misdeeds of a few of his soldiers and for the deaths of innocent Afghans at checkpoints. What bothers him is that Afghans see no difference between his soldiers and the murderous Taliban. “You know, this drawing of moral equivalence between us and the Taliban I really do get fed up with,” he says. “It’s not us who are blowing up people in marketplaces and all that sort of thing.”
Seemingly everywhere she turns, Bascon is blocked: by the rain that bogs down the Canadian vehicles, by a lack of parts to help the locals fix a generator, by the threat of suicide vehicles and by lack of coordination between the Canadians and the U.S. Special Forces. “Let her know that we’re Canadians, we’re the good people,” she tells an interpreter to instruct a villager. “We’re here to help them.”
It’s a tough sell.
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‘Afghanistan: The Other War’
Where: KCET
When: 9 to 10 tonight
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