Marines In Afghanistan's Helmand Province Using Same Tactics That Turned Around Al Anbar In Iraq

It pains me to have to link to any news stories even remotely connected to the New York Times but this one here at the International Herald Tribune is actually quite good and shows a great insight into how the Marines newly placed into the hell of Helmand province are looking to mimic the transition they helped enable in Iraq's Al Anbar province where the first "Awakening Councils" were formed. Here's some from the article:

But Company C served in Anbar Province, once one of the most intractably violent areas of Iraq, which quieted last year under a new strategy of empowering local groups called Awakening Councils, which now provide security. The marines were confident they could put that experience to good use here.
Only when you win over a critical balance of the local population and empower them to stand up to the insurgents can you turn the situation around, several marines said.

In this Afghan village, only the poorest laborers and farmers have started filtering back, Matzke said, adding, "These people are completely broken." They refused all assistance at first, he said, but after talking for a couple of hours they admitted they could use the help, but were afraid to accept it for fear of the Taliban.
The people were glad when the Taliban were driven away, the marines said, and that is a sentiment they need to nurture. "We need to convince the people we are here to help, and to exploit the fact that we can help," said Moder, the company commander.

This is an example of another reason why these Marines were specifically brought into Afghanistan. Sure, the Marines of the 24th Expeditionary had succeeded in wresting away Ramadi and Fallujah from al Qaeda and the Sunni insurgency in Iraq but they had also been directly involved in the birth of the Awakening movement. If Awakenings could spring up in Iraq, why not Afghanistan?

The bottom line of all this is that the Marines promise they will not retreat and leave the cooperating Afghans to the wolves of the Taliban and in return, the local Afghan population not only sets up their own resistance to the Taliban but they funnel tip after tip of Taliban movement to the Marines. It is beyond clever, it is war-altering. I think there are two issues that make this strategy a bit more difficult in Afghanistan:

1. The Marines are spread pretty thin in a country much larger than Iraq
2. The presence of the fields and fields of poppy will always bring with it a core influence of violence and illegality.

But, the sooner the Afghan tribes start to monitor and protect themselves, the sooner the Taliban will find it impossible to stay in Helmand - just as al Qaeda could not stay in Anbar.

U.S. marines apply lessons learned in Iraq to Afghanistan

HAZARJOFT, Afghanistan: U.S. marines pushed the Taliban out of this village and the surrounding district in southern Helmand Province so quickly in recent weeks that they called the operation a "catastrophic success."
Yet NATO troops conducted similar operations here in 2006 and 2007, and the Taliban returned soon after they left. The marines, drawing on lessons from Iraq, say they know what to do to keep the Taliban at bay if they are given the time.
"There is definitely someone thinking out there," Captain John Moder, commander of Company C of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, said of the Taliban. "That's why we need these people to be at least neutral to us," he said, gesturing to the farmers who have been slowly filtering back to harvest their fields.
The marines, originally sent to Garmser District on a three-day operation to open a road, have been here a month and are likely to stay longer. The extension of the operation reflects the evolving tactics of the counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan, building on the knowledge accumulated in recent years in Anbar Province in Iraq.

In this Afghan village, only the poorest laborers and farmers have started filtering back, Matzke said, adding, "These people are completely broken." They refused all assistance at first, he said, but after talking for a couple of hours they admitted they could use the help, but were afraid to accept it for fear of the Taliban.
The people were glad when the Taliban were driven away, the marines said, and that is a sentiment they need to nurture. "We need to convince the people we are here to help, and to exploit the fact that we can help," said Moder, the company commander.
As a first step, the marines promised to provide a strong security cordon so those villagers who had fled could return without fear to rebuild their homes and reopen the bazaar.
When on patrol, the marines carry a small gadget the size of an old Polaroid camera that takes fingerprints, photos and an iris scan of people they meet. It is used to build a database of the residents so they can easily spot strangers, the marines say. The Afghans accepted the imposition without protest.