Please, please, pretty please don't leave the warzone.
That seems to be today's message from NATO headquarters in Afghanistan to the residents of central Helmand province. For weeks, NATO forces have been telling anyone who'll listen that they're about to roll into the area in a "major offensive." And now that "Operation Moshtarak" is just about underway, many locals are taking the perfectly-understandable step of leaving town. NATO is asking them not to go.
"Combined force commanders are encouraging civilians to remain in the safety of their homes. Every effort is being made to ensure minimum disruption to the residents during the operation," reads a just-released NATO press release.
It's an unusual wartime statement. But what makes it even more odd is that NATO forces have been publicizing Operation Moshtarak for weeks, "to give civilians plenty of warning, decreasing the chances they will be caught in crossfire," according to Los Angeles Times reporters on the ground.
That's not the only strange element of this pre-publicized op. As Josh Foust notes, the stated primary goal of the Operation is back the farming community of Marjah. This will make at least the 4th time since 2007 that the area will be taken by coalition forces.
Social scientists will also participate in the Operation, apparently. Members of the Army's controversial combat anthropology project, the Human Terrain System, tell Reuters that they'll head to Marjah, alongside the infantrymen. That's also unusual, because the Human Terrain program was billed as a way to promote alternatives to "kinetic," bombs-and-bullets fighting.
"We know the population needs to be on our side, so (we ask) what are those gaps that exist that could make the population go the wrong way?" one Human Terrain Team researcher tells Reuters. "You can have really good intentions but you could miss something important ... you could create a wedge that allows the insurgents to take an advantage."
[Photo: USMC]
