# Why wasn't more poured into Kandahar?



## The Bread Guy (8 Sep 2010)

This excerpt from a blog from students at the Department of War Studies, King's College London drew my eye - the post is from some students doing some research with RC-S:


> ... The Canadians, now being Canadian-British I am biased, but…well, respect. Looking at Kandahar, its political and strategic importance, its plain centrality to this campaign, it’s amazing that  they held it as well as they did with pointy sticks. Ok, maybe not pointy sticks but ‘chronically and woefully under-resourced’ are words that spring to mind which again begs the question, why? If it’s so obvious now that this is the ‘centre of gravity’ then why weren’t we acting as though it were all along? ....


Uh, because other NATO countries weren't willing to either send more troops into the area, or remove caveats that would have allowed troops elsewhere to help more?

The piece also raises some other interesting initial observations, like this one re:  the "big blocks" to swifter progress:


> * The Afghan government is not able to (or seemingly very interested in) govern the country in a manner which is congenial to the resolution of the conflict. They are, basically, it seems to me, making hay while the sun shines–and some of them are making an absolute fortune out of the status quo. Why change?
> * The Taliban thrives on ISAF’s own supply chain, see Warlord, Inc.
> * The government security forces in the south of the country by their own admission would not last 24 hours without the support of the coalition–this is not likely to change outside the 2014-18 time frame. Political expectations, on the other hand, are that ‘positive trends’ will be demonstrated in November 2010.
> * Attitudes in the home populations of European coalition partners are increasingly hostile to the continuance of the campaign not least as the belief grows that the net contribution of the campaign to preventing terrorism on their own streets is negative. Meanwhile, for Americans, $300 million dollars a month is what USAID is pumping into the country at present. One can only imagine that a few Americans will be asking ‘for what?’ as their own public finances collapse. From where I sit I cannot see a good answer to that.


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## tomahawk6 (8 Sep 2010)

This article by the Army Times just astounded me.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/09/ap-nato-says-taliban-outnumbered-kandahar-090710/

NATO: Taliban outnumbered around Kandahar

By Slobodan Lekic - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Sep 8, 2010 12:43:51 EDT
   
BRUSSELS — The NATO-led coalition has overwhelming numerical superiority over the Taliban around the key southern Afghan city of Kandahar and expects to clear the area of insurgents by November’s end, a top commander said Tuesday.

Whether the operation’s success will last, however, will depend on the Afghan government’s ability to offer the area long-term security, Maj. Gen. Nick Carter said.

The operation to firm up security in Kandahar, with a population of about a half million with another half million in the hinterlands, is by far the biggest in the nine-year war.

The city served as the capital of the Taliban when the Islamist militia rose to power in Afghanistan in the 1990s. Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden used it as his base during the 9/11 attacks. Now, the insurgency draws its greatest strength from the province and the neighboring region, dominated by the ethnic Pashtun majority who form the Taliban core.

Carter said there were 10,000-12,000 Afghan national army troops in the region along with 5,000 Afghan police, besides about 15,000 international troops. They face about 1,000 guerrillas, said Carter, who heads Regional Command South, where Kandahar is located.

Coalition forces have been trying for years to pacify villages around Kandahar City, which the insurgents use to infiltrate the biggest urban center of the south.

Although the international force has always been successful in clearing the militants, they have managed to return within months because the NATO-led coalition didn’t have the forces to hold on to the areas.

“You need to dominate the population and dominate the ground ... in order to secure the solution,” Carter said.

He said most of the coalition effort was aimed at clearing the Taliban from the surrounding districts of Zhari and Panjwai and along Highway 1, “where they operate ... with a degree of freedom of action.”

“I can’t go into the timing of all this, suffice it to say it will happen in 2-3 months,” Carter said during a video conference from Kandahar. “Our expectation is that by mid- to the end of November we will have rid those areas of the Taliban.”

The NATO force in Regional Command South consists mainly of Americans, British and Canadians, along with Slovak, French and Belgian contingents.

While acknowledging that the ultimate success of the operation depends on the Afghan government’s long-term security capabilities, Carter suggested patience.

“These things take time, and if you give (the government) time there’s a sporting chance it will prevail,” he said.


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