Defense Technology International - July 2007 - (Page 17)

DAVID AXE/DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL media, he added. On the other hand, Afghanistan is full of rumors, and the media often publish unchecked stories. “A press agency recently put out ﬁgures saying that ISAF and OEF have caused more civilian casualties than the Taliban. This is, of course, nonsense, but many media reported these ﬁgures without checking them,” he noted. “Our problem is that the Taliban are very good at manipulating the media; the Afghan government is in its infancy in terms of media operations; and ISAF can only make a statement if we are sure the facts are correct, which requires time, depending on the security situation at the place of the incident.” According to Kasdorf, part of the reason why there are civilian casualties is that ISAF doesn’t have enough forces on the ground. “We are patrolling in small units. When these are ambushed, they often need support from airpower or artillery. That’s difﬁcult to do without hitting civilians if the Taliban are hiding in homes. We are doing everything we can to minimize civilian casualties, including the enforcement of more strict rules of engagement. But we are not affecting our forces’ right of selfdefense. There’s a careful balance between the lives of our soldiers and the lives of the civilian population. If our troops are not in immediate danger, there can be no strike.” At the Berlin conference, Kasdorf made a plea for political support. “We need to be backed up by the politicians at home,” he stated. “There are no alternatives—we must ISAF has 39,000 NATO troops plus 1,500 from partner nations like Australia, whose soldiers honor a fallen Dutch comrade at Kamp Holland in Uruzgan Province. be successful in Afghanistan. We need to be given the resources, we must all muster the will to pull this through. “Keep in mind that Afghanistan is in the middle of a volatile region,” he said. “It borders two nuclear powers (China and Pakistan) with another nearby (India), and yet another that is about to acquire nuclear weapons (Iran). The Afghan border with Pakistan is 2,430 km. [1,510 mi.] long and extremely porous. If Afghanistan falls back to the situation of pre-2001, there will be major consequences for Pakistan, and for control of its nuclear weapons.” I NATO Provincial Reconstruction Teams interact with the local population, yet are typically based outside the nearest town in fortiﬁed areas like this New Zealand camp at Bamyan. www.aviationweek.com/dti JULY/AUGUST 2007 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 17 http://www.aviationweek.com/dti

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Around the World Science Watch Tech Watch Parallax Ghost Ship Low Visibility Red Tape Sub Catcher Boom Time Broad Access Fight or Flight Cut Loose Loud and Clear Drone On Postmortem The Net Cutting Edge On the Record In Review Insight

Defense Technology International - July 2007

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