By Sgt. 1st Class Raymond DrumstaNew York Army National GuardALI AL SALEM AIR BASE, KUWAIT – Sometimelast April, New York Army National Guard Lt. Col. Russell Clark, other U.S.Soldiers, and members of the Dand District Afghan National Police found theirfirst target – a field of purple-white, oddly beautiful opium poppy plants.
The police and Soldiers had stolen a march onthe harvest, securing the field before anyone could incise the plants' seedpods and collect the milky white gum seeping forth – the raw material for heroin.
Shouldering their rifles and wielding longsticks like golf clubs, the police officers walked the field for hours,winnowing the pods from the plants, said Clark, an Angola, N.Y., resident.
Under the mentorship of Clark and hisSoldiers, the Dand District Afghan National Police (ANP), would find and securemany acres of opium poppies and eradicate them in the same manner. With theassistance of other Soldiers specially trained in agriculture, the citizens ofDand would see a change in crops through to fruition.
These are some of the paradoxical butultimately successful missions the police and the Soldiers are performing underthe threat of IEDs and the shadow of so-called "green on blue"killings, Clark recalled when interviewed here.
Clark gives most of the credit for thesevictories to the district ANP, whom he describes as efficient officerscommitted to change. They have become a stronger and more responsive presencein the district villages, he said.
Though the green-on-blue killings have led togreater restrictions, Clark expressed great confidence in the ANP officers.
"They lead the way on every operation,"Clark said. "I trail behind with the leadership."
ANew York State corrections officer in his civilian life, Clark deployed toAfghanistan with another group of Army National Guard Soldiers, most of whomhail from New York, in February and March.
Soon after arriving, he and five other NewYork Army National Guard Soldiers – two of whom also have police experience –were picked to assist the ANP in Dand and two neighboring districts south ofKhandahar City, Clark said.
"Because of our law-enforcementbackgrounds, we head up the mentoring in these districts," Clark said ofthe two Soldiers.
The Soldiers were assigned to Task ForceArrowhead under the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Clark beganworking closely with Maj. Rahmatullah, the Dand District ANP commander.
"I have dinner with him everynight," Clark said.
Clark and the Soldiers also found themselvesin a predominantly flat countryside, interlaced with canals and wadis, arid butfor trenches irrigating many rural farms. They set about to help Rahmatullahand his police officers achieve their first goal – eradicating the district'sopium poppy crop.
Their first foray could have ended for some ofthem shortly after it started, Clark recalled. On the way to the first poppyfield, Afghan National Army soldiers working with them found and eliminatedthree IEDs before they had a chance to explode, Clark said. Later on, the DandDistrict police officers would go on to make many such discoveries, he added.
Asea of green dotted with purple-white poppy flowers, the field was a fantasticsight which reminded the Soldiers of "The Wizard of Oz," Clark said.
"It was a beautiful field," herecalled. "They were just blossoming. We got it just in time."
There was no tractor available to destroy theplants, so the ANP simply whittled sticks and used them to hack the seed podsoff – a process which took hours, Clark said.
"So they just did it by hand, theold-fashioned way...like locusts descending on a field," he recalled.
Braving IEDs and other dangers, they wouldrepeat this process many times between mid-April and mid-May, Clark recalled.Aerial surveillance and the ANP's own intelligence information, or intel, latershowed that the officers had wiped out the Dand district's entire poppy crop,he added.
This sowed the seeds for the next wave ofchange – replacing the poppies with marketable, legal, profitable andtraditional crops. Helped by a Kentucky Army National Guard agricultural team,the farmers put in winter wheat, then moved on to grow cantaloupes and honeydewmelons, Clark said.
"We're trying to give them good cashcrops," Clark said. "Afghanistan is famous for its melons,pomegranates, grapes and raisins."
None of this would have been possible withoutthe security established by the police, and the growing strength ofvillage-police relations, he said.
"Ninety percent of what we're doing iscommunity-based policing," Clark said.
Cordon and Search, KLE, and Tea.
That strength of these relations isrooted in the efficiency of the police, who, guided by the American Soldiers,routinely conduct cordon-and-search operations in the villages, then sit downto meet with the village elders, Clark said.
The immediate task of these operations is tofind wanted criminals or insurgents, contraband such as illegal drugs orweapons and IED factories, he explained. But the long-term goal, he stressed,is to train the police in evidence-based investigations and prosecutions, andbuild police presence in the villages.
"They're good at fighting," Clarksaid of the ANP. "They can go into a village, cordon it off and clear itin no time." There have been few serious incidents during theseoperations, something he also attributes to the ANP's speed and good use ofintel.
Rolling down the district's narrow, rutteddirt roads in Ford Ranger trucks, the police will surround a village, secure itand then go through it, knocking on doors and asking questions, Clarkexplained. The meetings with the village elders, known as key leaderengagements (KLE), are part and parcel of counter-insurgency operations, hestressed.
"That's huge," Clark said."After a clearing operation, we sit down and have a KLE. You go in on highalert, and the next thing you know, you're sitting down, drinking tea."
These good relations have also led villagersto serve up fresh intel, helping the police find countless IEDs – including onroutes the police and soldiers use – thus saving lives, Clark said.
Clark said the village elders also help thepolice walk the line between modern law and Sharia, the Islamic law based onthe Koran.
"If it's within a tribe, it's handled bySharia law," Clark said. "If it's between tribes, it's pushed up tothe police." The ANP investigate the whole scope of crimes, includingmurder, he added.
Though he hasn't lost any troops, four policeofficers were killed in small-arms and IED attacks since he arrived, Clarksaid. But Rahmatullah's response to the attacks showed his true mettle, Clarksaid. He described Rahmatullah's leadership style as a legacy of the oldtop-down Soviet doctrine.
"He definitely rules with an ironfist," Clark said.
Rahmatullah investigated the attacks,determined they could have been prevented with better patrolling anddisciplined the officers responsible, he recalled. Along with consistency ofdistrict leadership, hiring police from the villages has also built anatmosphere of familiarity and mutual trust, Clark added.
"This is what makes Dand stand out aheadof the other districts," Clark said, crediting his American Army andCanadian Army predecessors for their groundwork. "Dand was already on itsway to the next level of transition."
That transition involves the police takingover all district law-enforcement, allowing the Afghan National Army to assumemore of the role it's designed for – homeland defense, Clark said.
But before that happens, the police will haveto improve their long-term planning and become more self-sufficient inlogistics and supply. Their mentorship of the police in these areas continues,Clark said.
"We're trying to set them up for thefuture," he said.
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