Moving the Rhod. Fire Force concept to Afghanistan?

[davidbfpo]

JMA,

You asked:

Does anyone know how Free Range are operating there... and is what they are doing degrading the Taliban?

FRI do explain their non-military role in development work at the grass roots on their website, such as paying day labourers to clear ditches etc. Other schemes are under-way and are shown in articles. Funding appears to be a mixture of private, NGO and taxpayer funding.

Degrading? From this armchair I'd say yes. I expect the FRI day rate is not as good as the Taliban pay during the fighting season. Nevertheless providing work and development can degrade the Taliban. In the blogsite there are odd mentions of how the locals watch over them and the work of other independents, notably an EOD civilian.

[JMA]

JMA,

You asked:

FRI do explain their non-military role in development work at the grass roots on their website, such as paying day labourers to clear ditches etc. Other schemes are under-way and are shown in articles. Funding appears to be a mixture of private, NGO and taxpayer funding.

Degrading? From this armchair I'd say yes. I expect the FRI day rate is not as good as the Taliban pay during the fighting season. Nevertheless providing work and development can degrade the Taliban. In the blogsite there are odd mentions of how the locals watch over them and the work of other independents, notably an EOD civilian.

I asked that because of the following piece:

Heavily armed internationals working in Nimroz Province will probably provoke a response by local Taliban. Lightly armed experienced international stability operations guys can work all over the province without provoking a response when they work with local shura’s, village elders and district government officials.

Bringing in heavily armed internationals may upset the delicate balance in the province rather like the Brit arrival in Sangin in 2006 did.

Then the contractors (like FRI) are obviously not upsetting any balance to the extent where the Taliban feel the need to jerk their chain.

Is Nimroz a hornets nest about to be upset or is it a low intensity area that needs a final push to rid itself of the Taliban?

My money is on the former.

[davidbfpo]

IIRC in an earlier FRI post reference was made to a minimal Taliban presence in Nimroz Province, although some caution was needed when using private accommodation so as not to attract attention.

One recent post was:http://freerangeinternational.com/blog/?p=3708 and another:http://freerangeinternational.com/blog/?p=3018