Allies clash over Helmand achievements

US marines and a number of British advisers are reportedly involved in a war of words over the correct approach to help Afghan locals in southern Afghanistan.

The row comes six months after British forces handed over responsibility of the town of Musa Qala to US Marines who began an aggressive strategy of pushing the Taliban out of insurgent strongholds.

Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Manning, the US Marine battalion commander, claimed US actions had had the area safer with and doubled the amount of area control held by the Afghan government.

“[The British] didn’t pursue the Taliban,” he said. “We’ll go after them”.

Civilian efforts to reconstruct the area were also criticised, with Lt Col Manning saying the British had pledged to construct but failed to deliver. Efforts were summed up, he said, by the words on a sign found in an encampment used by British engineers: “Promise everything, deliver nothing”, it says.

According to an article published in The Washington Post, British workers in the country claim the situation in Musa Qala has got worse since US forces took control while British officials have been quick to play down tensions.

Senior sources have pointed to comments made by Major General Richard Mills, the US Marine commander in charge of Helmand, who said that changes would not have been possible without British forces having “paid a large price in blood”.

Such open criticism is 'dangerous'
Despite the close bond between British and American forces, built up in hard fighting during wars and campaigns over the past century, rivalry and criticism is forever present, writes Colonel Richard Kemp.
You only have to think of the tempestuous relationship between British General Bernard Montgomery and American General George Patton in the Second World War.
Sometimes rivalry in such circumstances can be healthy, fostering improvement to combat techniques and spurring both forces on to greater victories. But in the complex and precariously-balanced counterinsurgency war we are fighting in Afghanistan, open criticism of the kind that Lieutenant Colonel Manning has voiced is dangerous.
Read more

Almost 10,000 British forces are deployed in Helmand province where 20,000 US troops are also based. British forces are now consolidating operations in a handful of districts rather then being spread over a vast area.

To the south of Musa Qala US forces are in the process of moving into the Sangin area where more than 100 British troops have died over the past four years. 40 Commando Royal Marines are currently based in the region.

British forces have been quick to dismiss accusations that the Sangin handover is a “retreat”. Author and former soldier Patrick Hennessey told Channel 4 News the claims showed a “naive understanding of coalition military operations”.

A British officer said there was a “mix of relief and regret” over redeployment.

“We’ve spilled a lot of blood in Sangin and Musa Qala,” he told The Washington Post.

“Quite frankly we’re quite happy to leave those places, but we don’t want this to look like another Basra”, he said referring to the Iraqi city where US forces had to regain control after a British pullout in 2007. A bitter war of words emerged after Iraqi soldiers backed by US troops seized back Basra from Shia militias who dominated after the British pullout.