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US policy on Afghanistan helps Al Qaida, says Irish Afghan war hero

By
PATRICK ROBERTS,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Sunday, January 31, 2010, 8:04 AM
Updated Sunday, January 31, 2010, 8:30 AM

 

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Captain Doug Beattie
Captain Doug Beattie

A highly decorated senior British Army officer from Northern Ireland who won the Military Cross in Afghanistan has said that training local police there is a waste of time and that the war on drugs is merely creating allies for Al Qaida. Captain Doug Beattie of the Royal Irish Regiment gained the Military Cross after a 14-day battle against the Taliban in 2006. After that battle his patrol became the most highly decorated British army unit since the first Gulf War in 1991.

Now, Beattie says that training Afghan police who then serve in their own tribal neighborhoods is a complete waste of time.

Speaking in Belfast prior to a private lecture about the war against the Taliban in remarks reported by the Observer newspaper  the officer said , "So you have, say, a Pashtun Alizai tribesman who is recruited into the police and trained by the likes of us who then ends up serving in the Alizai area of Helmand. If that officer is now manning a checkpoint and Alizai aligned to the Taliban who have known him all his life come up to him, what is he going to do?

"It's more than likely that officer is going to let that particular Taliban through the checkpoint with their guns and their explosive devices. That officer will be more loyal to his tribe in his own tribal area than his police force or indeed the government."

Beattie worked as a mentor with the police in 2006. "I am really disappointed with the plan for policing in Afghanistan. The problem with the police in Afghanistan, particularly in Helmand, is that they are drawn from their own communities.

Beattie drew an analogy between the Taliban  tribal areas and the IRA and South Armagh, the famous border area the IRA controlled during the Troubles.

"This would be like taking a police recruit from Crossmaglen in south Armagh, then getting him to patrol in Crossmaglen. Imagine all the local pressures he would be under from republican dissidents he might have gone to school with, or who knew where he or his parents lived. That is taking place in Afghanistan, and we, the west, are facilitating it.

"The failure of policing in Afghanistan is a critical reason why the Taliban are scoring so many successes, why they are getting more support. The people like the Afghan army in Helmand, yet the army don't come from Helmand, but from other parts of the country. Yet the people don't trust the police – the relationship with them is truly horrendous."

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Posted by plasticpaddy on Feb 01, 2010, 08:53 PM EST
hero my backside!
 


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