Marines Make Progress in One Afghan Valley
Sign of Marines' progress is lack of poppy plantings this year.
KOSHTAY, Helmand Province, Afghanistan June 18, 2010— -- With Washington on the hunt for signs of progress here officials might look to Garmsir District where improvements are easily measured, but still tempered by an adaptable Taliban insurgency.
A year ago there were no Marines here. Today there are more than a thousand spread out in 42 encampments, some of them as small as four Marines, throughout the sprawling area of operation.
Twenty-five miles long, with a population estimated at upwards of 100,000, the district stretches north to south along the Helmand River from an area Marines call the Snake's Head, a wide area of foliage in the otherwise narrow valley.
The 3rd battalion, 1st Marines based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., began replacing the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines in April and took over full command in May.
In July 2009 Marines fired the opening salvos in their effort to turn Helmand Province around. In the first offensive after President Obama ordered an initial increase in troops Operation Khanjar saw 4,000 thousand Marines simultaneously striking Taliban strongholds in both Garmsir and Nawa.
Ltc. Ben Watson, Battalion Commander for the 3/1, is realistic about the challenges laying ahead but says, "I believe in what we are doing and I believe we are making steady progress."
A year ago the Taliban openly controlled the entire area. Today they've been pushed almost entirely out. Hospitals, markets and schools have opened, roads have been repaired and the town of Garmsir even has solar street lights thanks to U.S. taxpayers.
In Garmsir's thriving market shopkeepers and business owners, convinced that long-term security has returned, have begun sinking their own money into refurbishing old shops and building new ones.
Perhaps the most promising sign of improvement in and around the town of Garmsir was that poppies for opium production weren't planted this past season. Farmers instead planted wheat for the first time in years.
Col. Randall Newman, commander for Regimental Combat Team 7 which oversees a wide swath of Helmand Province including Garmsir, believes the change is due in part to markets reopening and a more normal economic rhythm kicking in and because the villagers here tacitly accept what the central government in Kabul wants, an end to poppy growing.
