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development and governance priorities, and monitor the
many U.S.-sponsored development activities in their
province.
Our officers are uniquely effective. Unlike in Iraq —
where the PRTs have large civilian contingents, including
contractors as well as civilians from other agencies — in
Afghanistan personnel from the Foreign and Civil Service
are the only nonmilitary representatives at their PRTs. As
such, they wield great responsibility, often at reasonably
junior ranks. Among the few civilians assigned to remote
Forward Operating Bases, each provides a value far in
excess of what could be expected from one person. In one
case we received information that a particular terrorist
group was so concerned over the impact that one officer
was having that they issued orders to kill the individual (in
response, we took appropriate steps).
Our opponents are right to be afraid. By openly and
persuasively engaging tribal leaders, we are able to convince
them that sending their daughters to school is a
good thing and that it is better that their young men build
roads rather than behead road builders. By their efforts,
our people are at once helping Afghanistan and countering
the insurgency.
While military personnel do engage in these tasks,
they recognize the expertise that civilians bring — and
want more. Last fall, we began examining how to bolster
the civilian presence at our PRTs. Some argued for a
replication of the model that has proven successful in
Iraq, where the PRTs have a robust civilian presence.
This approach was rejected, however, primarily because
PRT bases in Afghanistan are small, so adding extra civilians
would not only increase the logistical burden but
transform a compact, well-running institution into a larger,
less nimble bureaucracy. Additionally, very few of the
Afghanistan PRTs are based at or near major military
facilities. In any case, there simply aren’t the spare bodies
to go around.
“PRT Plus”
Instead, it was decided that the same effect could be
achieved by adding State and USAID personnel to the
embassy and to the brigades that oversee the PRTs.
After some interagency polishing locally, Embassy
Kabul’s “PRT Plus” concept was approved by Washington
and will be funded through a supplemental to be
implemented as soon as funding is available.
In addition to quantity, we also focused on quality
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through changes in focus, planning and training. An
important step occurred earlier this year when the
embassy’s State PRT office was given the interagency
lead for local governance, a key element in our effort to
connect the Afghan people to their government. This
transformed the office from an operational shop into a
policy section. The embassy’s hard-working political section
is primarily focused on issues of national governance.
The PRT section, which directly controls the officers
deployed to the provinces, is able to reach much deeper
into the local level, developing an expertise that is difficult
for a Kabul-based officer to master.
Innovative work is also taking place in terms of our
counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan. USAID staff
working with U.S. forces are successfully integrating
development interventions into combat planning and
operations, which is helping achieve greater success for
the “clear, hold, build” counterinsurgency strategy in
remote and insecure areas. This has had great success in
mitigating negative reactions following combat operations.
Civilian advisers follow the forces, assisting to
repair damage and implementing quick-impact projects
that make an immediate and measurable difference in
the lives of local residents. Examples include “microhydro”
projects, small hydroelectric facilities that can
bring power to a village for the first time in its history.
Such seemingly small steps can make the difference in
determining whether a village supports the insurgents or
turns toward the government.
We are also making strides in preparing our people for
working closely with the military in a foreign environment.
State’s Office of the Coordinator for Stabilization
and Reconstruction and USAID’s Office of Military
Affairs have broken new ground as they work to refine
the three-week training course for incoming civilian PRT
staff. The course, conducted at Ft. Bragg, brings together
the military and civilian elements of each team.
Additionally, we have focused on promoting continuity,
to ensure that we do not repeat the Vietnam-era syndrome
of fighting a series of “one-year wars.” The first
step was taken when the State PRT offices became interagency
lead for local governance. Our next effort
involved the dispatch of S/CRS teams to each of the U.S.led
PRTs. These teams drew on proven private-sector
strategic planning instruments, already used extensively
by the military services and intelligence community, to
design, test and validate an integrated planning process.