The Nation.

Afghanistan: The Other War

By Christian Parenti

This article appeared in the March 27, 2006 edition of The Nation.

March 9, 2006

The MPs from the 164th have a relatively straightforward but important job: to secure the Shomali Plain and the mountains surrounding the Bagram Air Base so that no one fires rockets into the base or shoots down any of its air traffic. To do this, the MPs use information-oriented tactics common throughout Afghanistan.

Research assistance was provided by the Investigative Fund of The Nation Institute.

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Counterinsurgency doctrine, such at it is, holds that military action must be guided by accurate knowledge: not just "actionable intelligence" about specific threats but also a generalized, almost ethnographic, understanding of everyday life in the area of operations. What are the local grievances? Who is in charge? Where are the wells?

Learn these things, and the occupying forces can map not only the physical terrain but also the social world they must control, the community power structures and local economies. With this knowledge the occupying forces can effectively direct both economic development and, when necessary, military repression. Thus, part of what these MPs do is conduct village surveys to create an overview of life on the Shomali Plain. Or at least that's the idea.

When I chat with the MPs' platoon leader, a lieutenant who has spent almost eleven months patrolling this valley, I am shocked that he doesn't even know its ethnic makeup. "I think they're Dari," he says. Informed that Dari is a language, not an ethnicity, he tells me to ask one of the Afghan interpreters. "The 'terps know. These guys are smart."

Moments later an MP learns that the 'terps have suddenly been barred from the dining facilities on security grounds. "What the fuck? They've been eating there for a year," says a GI. "They're gonna be pissed."

The pre-patrol briefing is perfunctory; little information about recent activity is passed on to the troops. Two days earlier the Bagram Air Base had been attacked by a mob infuriated by the Danish Muhammad cartoons. Someone in the crowd opened fire on the gates. Three protesters were killed when Afghan forces and American MPs returned fire. The meaning or possible implications of these events are not mentioned before we roll out.

About Christian Parenti

Christian Parenti, a frequent contributor to The Nation on international affairs, is the author of The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq (New Press). more...

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