B*N*S*N3

Stabilisation in Musa Qal'ah points the way forward for Op MOSHTARAK

A Military Operations news article

5 Mar 10

Mike McKie is a civilian stabilisation adviser working in Musa Qal'ah. He says that the positive achievements made there - thriving markets, hybrid power generation, improving local governance, education and healthcare - point to what is possible in Marjah in the wake of Operation MOSHTARAK.

Soldiers attend a shura with local Afghans
[Picture: Copyright ISAF 2010]

Mike is from the UK's Stabilisation Unit (SU), a pool of advisers who bring their expertise to the world's most troubled hotspots, which is jointly 'owned' by the Department for International Development, the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

There are currently stabilisation advisers in many of the forward operating bases (FOBs) in Helmand and the civilian stabilisation concept has been at the heart of Operation MOSHTARAK from its inception.

Mike McKie said:

"Once the spectre of insurgency has been removed, we can move forward very quickly. It does not have to take long for the negative effects of insurgency to become clear by their absence."

Mike has recently attended a shura, or consultative gathering, in Patrol Base Habib, in an area which was, until very recently, key terrain for the Taliban.

With the insurgents displaced, local people were sufficiently confident to attend the shura with the District Governor Mullah Salam and local Afghan police and army commanders and air their concerns about such pressing issues as land tenure and illegal land sales.

During the Taliban era this would have been unthinkable:...

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