Marja Offensive Hits a Hitch

At the core of General Stanley McChrystal's tactics in winning meaningful and lasting control of the Marja province is the rapid and aggressive delivery of benefits to the civilian population.

This means things like roads, schools, doctors, farm aid, and jobs.

It's a good idea, the problem is that the UN has just said that it will take no part in the provision of such aid in Marja province, and we can be relatively sure that the NGO's will follow their lead:

Senior United Nations officials in Afghanistan on Wednesday criticized NATO forces for what one referred to as “the militarization of humanitarian aid,” and said United Nations agencies would not participate in the military’s reconstruction strategy in Marja as part of its current offensive there.

“We are not part of that process, we do not want to be part of it,” said Robert Watkins, the deputy special representative of the secretary general, at a news conference attended by other officials to announce the United Nations’ Humanitarian Action Plan for 2010. “We will not be part of that military strategy.”

The American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, has made the rapid delivery of governmental services, including education, health care and job programs, a central part of his strategy in Marja, referring to plans to rapidly deploy what he has referred to as “a government in a box” once Marja is pacified.

………

“The distribution of aid by the military gives a very difficult impression to the communities and puts the lives of humanitarian workers at risk,” Mr. Watkins said.

While it's standard at this point to make jokes about the impotence of the UN, this is a very real problem, particularly when the many of military reconstruction teams, "See their role as providing services in exchange for intelligence-gathering and political activity directed against the insurgents."

If the UN and the NGOs do what McChrystal wants, they are painting big targets on the back of every aid worker in the country, and those aid workers don't have flak jackets and weapons, and they are not trained in combat, nor should they be.

So, I guess it's back to Halliburton and Blackwater Xe to deliver those services.