The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
‘Giving the Afghans freedom’
THE MISSION in Afghanistan is succeeding, The Blackwatch Commanding Officer has insisted.
Lieutenant Colonel Edward Fenton has just brought the 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) back safely from a six-month tour of duty in the country. In a lecture to the Friends of The Black Watch in Perth, he urged people to ignore negative headlines about progress against the continued insurgency, stating:“the british have achieved enormous success and that is bearing fruit.”
Lt Col Fenton outlined the operations in which his battalion was involved in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province, clearing out Taliban fighters to allow Afghans to return to their normal lives. He said most Afghans were keen for the mission to succeed.
“Our approach was about understanding the will of the people because if we get that then we’ve cracked it and that’s what the British and Americans have been doing. The Taliban are relying on the people for support but are increasingly finding it difficult to get that.
“They are suffering a lack of command because their key commanders are sitting in Pakistan. Part of the strategy has been to target the command-level insurgents.
“That allows the farmer to go back to farming because he doesn’t have anyone breathing down his neck telling him he has to fight.
“It wasn’t the Afghan people we had to fight, it was the taliban – the afghan people were just scared. A lot of it is not ideological – it’s fear of reprisal.”
One of the key parts of the tour was Operation-winter Success, which saw the afghan army join ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) to clear insurgents from a previously hostile zone at the junction of major routes through Helmand.
Checkpoints were then built and peace established in the area, Lt Col Fenton said, allowing the populace to go about their business. He added: “They could open the market and show the Taliban had lost.”
Throughout their time in Afghanistan, he said, British troops aided the burgeoning Afghan army and trained the national and local police forces which will eventually take over full control of security.
Lt Col Fenton said: “We’re having a combined effect on insurgents, which is giving the Afghan people the freedom to take control of their own lives and take them forward.”