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As many Afghan Security Personel killed in Helmand in one winter as for the whole British deployment

nangyale

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Troops leave Helmand to an uncertain future
By David Loyn Afghanistan correspondent, BBC News
_73975436_c20d1f6b-b53e-4e55-ae25-7a06ef32859a.jpg

Voters will elect a new national president and provincial councils

Afghan forces in Helmand in the south-west of the country are struggling to provide security for Saturday's elections.


During fighting in the last few months, the police lost 400 men - their worst losses in the winter since the conflict began.


Qudratullah Naqshbandi, the head of the Independent Election Commission, says it will not be possible to open polling stations in a third of the province.


Much of the countryside in the north of Helmand is now in the hands of the Taliban.


At the same time, the annual attempt to destroy the opium poppy crop is under way. Resin in the seed heads of the poppies is the raw material for opium.

_73972042_poppyfarmers.jpg

Poppy farmers and police are united on one thing: without alternatives, farmers will not give up the crop

The counter-narcotics chief, Acting Colonel Mohammed Abdali, says that the money to buy fuel for the tractors and pay the workers who destroy the crop has not been paid by the central government.


There was a record harvest last year, the last year in which there was a substantial UK and US troop presence.


Colonel Abdali says that he will not be able to destroy more than a very small fraction of the more than 100,000 hectares thought to have been planted. Driving an armoured Humvee donated by the US, which has bullet marks on every window, he said that he had to fight the Taliban every day.


One of a new generation of police commanders with far better education and motivation than many of their predecessors, he knows eradication is a blunt instrument that will have no lasting effect without other policies as well.

"My request from the authorities is that poor farmers should be provided with alternatives, so their future can be guaranteed. Otherwise, when we eradicate their poppies, they are forced to join the Taliban, or commit crimes," he says.

As his tractors tear through the poppy fields, ripping up the thick green poppy plants, farmers plead with him to stop. One says: "Who do I complain to. Where do I go to rip my shirt" - a traditional sign of despair.

The farmers have borrowed to buy poppy seeds and fertiliser, and fear they will not be able to repay. They say they plant only a few poppies to feed their families. Nothing else pays as well. Failure to provide markets for alternative crops undermined much else that British troops did here........
 
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Troops leave Helmand to an uncertain future
By David Loyn Afghanistan correspondent, BBC News
_73975436_c20d1f6b-b53e-4e55-ae25-7a06ef32859a.jpg

Voters will elect a new national president and provincial councils

Afghan forces in Helmand in the south-west of the country are struggling to provide security for Saturday's elections.

During fighting in the last few months, the police lost 400 men - their worst losses in the winter since the conflict began.

Qudratullah Naqshbandi, the head of the Independent Election Commission, says it will not be possible to open polling stations in a third of the province.

Much of the countryside in the north of Helmand is now in the hands of the Taliban.


At the same time, the annual attempt to destroy the opium poppy crop is under way. Resin in the seed heads of the poppies is the raw material for opium.

_73972042_poppyfarmers.jpg

Poppy farmers and police are united on one thing: without alternatives, farmers will not give up the crop

The counter-narcotics chief, Acting Colonel Mohammed Abdali, says that the money to buy fuel for the tractors and pay the workers who destroy the crop has not been paid by the central government.

There was a record harvest last year, the last year in which there was a substantial UK and US troop presence.

Colonel Abdali says that he will not be able to destroy more than a very small fraction of the more than 100,000 hectares thought to have been planted. Driving an armoured Humvee donated by the US, which has bullet marks on every window, he said that he had to fight the Taliban every day.


One of a new generation of police commanders with far better education and motivation than many of their predecessors, he knows eradication is a blunt instrument that will have no lasting effect without other policies as well.

"My request from the authorities is that poor farmers should be provided with alternatives, so their future can be guaranteed. Otherwise, when we eradicate their poppies, they are forced to join the Taliban, or commit crimes," he says.

As his tractors tear through the poppy fields, ripping up the thick green poppy plants, farmers plead with him to stop. One says: "Who do I complain to. Where do I go to rip my shirt" - a traditional sign of despair.

The farmers have borrowed to buy poppy seeds and fertiliser, and fear they will not be able to repay. They say they plant only a few poppies to feed their families. Nothing else pays as well. Failure to provide markets for alternative crops undermined much else that British troops did here........

NATO must look in to the matter seriously as now KSA, Jordan and UAE have their own vehicles. NATO can buy 15000+ Humvees from KSA to supply to PAA along with their own 13000 MRAPs which they are giving to PAA.

Also for Afgans, they should buy 600+ Humvess from Jordan and also Humvees present in Kuwaits, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, UAE and Yemen to give them to Afghan which can easily protect them from gun fire and RPG-7s.

As these countries now have their own vehicles.
 
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NATO must look in to the matter seriously as now KSA, Jordan and UAE have their own vehicles. NATO can buy 15000+ Humvees from KSA to supply to PAA along with their own 13000 MRAPs which they are giving to PAA.

i want to has some of wut u smoking brah
 
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NATO must look in to the matter seriously as now KSA, Jordan and UAE have their own vehicles. NATO can buy 15000+ Humvees from KSA to supply to PAA along with their own 13000 MRAPs which they are giving to PAA.
Give me some of whatever you are on man.....:drag:
 
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