An American Lion

A French Foreign Legion soldier in Deh Rawod, Afghanistan. (Photo taken by Cpl. John Scott Rafoss)

There is a story up at the Wall Street Journal, which serves as an account of how the French foreign legion is behaving in Afghanistan. I don't have a judgement on the morals--they're soldiers. They should be allowed their Ukrainian pop music and their badly-edited hardcore. You can follow the discussion here, and see if anyone has anything relevant to add.

This is a classic example of how not to try and fight a population-centric or use COIN tactics in an engagement:

By 8 a.m., the first villagers arrived, most of them children wearing embroidered Pashtun skullcaps and clutching Unicef-issued backpacks. Only a handful of adults appeared. The most senior of them, Jamal, a representative of the area's tribal chieftain, stared blankly when asked about the Taliban. "We're just civilians here. We know nothing about them," he said.

Capt. Guillaume was skeptical. When Outpost Rocco was attacked Oct. 12, "the entire village saw the insurgents pass by, but no one alerted the army or the police," he told the villagers, stern-faced. "Civilians here will be arrested and imprisoned because they helped the insurgents," he threatened.

An Afghan army representative sitting next to Capt. Guillaume, Sgt. Din Mohammad, tried a softer line. "We're here to help you, not to disturb you. If a mortar falls on your house, it pains me as much as if it were to fall on my house," he said. The villagers, speaking one after the other, insisted that they will inform the authorities immediately should any insurgents enter Rodbar. They continued to deny any militant presence in their midst.

As Capt. Guillaume talked to the villagers, his second-in-command rushed to whisper urgent news into his ear. A series of gunshots had been heard in the distance, presumably a signal by the Taliban. Some suspicious men were spotted climbing the mountain. One was seen using a small mirror to indicate his position.

The meeting over, the sullen villagers filed out, one by one. Then the schoolchildren -- who had yet to begin the day's classes -- packed up and started to leave. "It's a pretty short school day," one of the Legionnaires quipped. "Not a good sign," said another.

He gives his little speech, doubtless if anyone thought that his threat mattered, and then the school children leave the school. Not long after that, the insurgents essentially drive them out of the area, forcing them to withdraw.

I thought that if you were going to do COIN, you would sit down with the villagers and say, 'we're now here, for good, and we're going to protect you from the insurgents.'

Then you would establish yourself among the people and go looking for any insurgent who wants to get between you and the population. IN the event of an attack, you would hold your position, protect the village, and drive off the insurgents, regardless of the casualties to your own force. If you show that you're willing to bleed for the villagers, that might earn their trust. If you show that you're not going to abandon them, that might also earn their trust.

Threatening them and running from the insurgents won't cut it. Your 'base' should be amongst them, not in a remote location. Of course, the idea of leaving these people alone, and allowing them to deal with the warlords and the Taliban if they see fit, that doesn't enter the equation at all. We cannot build their nation for them, and no increase in French or American troops and no amount of "nation building" is going to accomplish anything.