Isaf Chief of Staff Marco Bertolini offers his explanation of the disaster:
“We aimed to westernize the country but they have completely different traditions”
Where have we failed? «It has been pretended to export democracy and Western values without taking into account the Afghan culture and traditions. More, the allied military coalition marched at different rates. The Anglo-Saxon armies applied the rules of war, while we Europeans worked as if we were police forces with a task of moral regeneration of the country. The result after twenty years is this tragic Caporetto of the Afghan army ».
Marco Bertolini does not hold back. And in the usual frank style with which he operated from General of the Folgore Paratroopers Brigade in Kabul in 2008 (as well as in the role of ISAF Chief of Staff of the entire international contingent) provides his explanation of the Afghan disaster. He is helped by the condition of a retired general who at 68, after forty years of service often with the Italian military missions abroad, enjoys the experience and has the freedom to help understand.
The Afghans in the face of the Taliban, a dramatic and very rapid course. How do you explain it?
«Certainly NATO and our European armies will have to deal with this reality. We will have to evaluate the failures and learn for the next missions between Africa and the Middle East. In the new operation Takuba we are adopting the same training criteria as the local forces in the Sahel. In Libya it was the Turks who acted militarily in our place. The Afghan lesson needs to be studied. The explanation of this disaster is articulated on two levels: one political and the other tactical-operational. We aimed to westernize Afghanistan by trying to impose our democratic systems. But they have quite different traditions. For example, they have no parties. The Pashtuns are an ethnic group linked to local traditions, and so are the Hazaras or Tajiks. We deluded ourselves that the warm welcome given to us by the city elites represented the whole country. But the majority are in the countryside, in the mountains, among the villages and have always looked at us with suspicion, if not open hostility. Many do not understand the insistence on women’s rights, they see it as an intrusion ».
Have you never thought about it in two decades?
«There has been a lot of talk about it at ISAF commands. American generals David McKiernan and Stanley McChrystal insisted that it was necessary to win the sympathy of the people, to work on the ground with the people. But little came of it ».
And the operational aspect?
“Unfortunately ours has always been an alternating gauge military coalition. The Americans, along with the British, were waging war in the full sense of the word. We, on the other hand, along with many other contingents, insisted on presenting our operations as civilians and peacekeepers: we brought books to children, built schools, assistance centers for women. Sometimes it was as if we were in Afghanistan solely to get the burqa abolished, the military dimension was completely lost. Of course we were forced to shoot from time to time. But we had to tell our public opinion that we were doing it only to defend ourselves. Our rules of engagement were uneven and limiting for us ».
For instance?
“In case one of our patrols met Osama bin Laden himself on the street he could never have fired first, but just return fire. When our vehicles were damaged by enemy shots, the case went to the Rome Prosecutor’s Office for an investigation and the vehicle was blocked. Normal procedures in Italy, not in conflict zones. In 2014 our mission changed from “combat” to “training” of local troops. But the Taliban have continued to strengthen ”.
Was Biden wrong to order the recall?
«It was not Biden, but Trump who wanted an agreement with the Taliban for the withdrawal. And anyway it was inevitable, after two decades the situation was now blocked. It is certainly bitter to note that after so much effort and work the Taliban are returning to power stronger and more extremist than before ».
August 13, 2021 (change August 13, 2021 | 22:25)
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