Washington, June 14: Revamping its detention policies in Afghanistan, the Pentagon is revising a program to give detainees courses on moderate Islamic teachings, job training and civics as part of efforts to pacify the violence-mired country. “You can’t lock guys up forever,” a US military official in Afghanistan told.
Under the program, detainees deemed moderates at the Bagram airbase, are given courses on moderate Islamic teachings.
They are also given job training and courses on civics, mathematics, and other similar subjects.
“The idea is to change how they see the world and give them the tools that at least give them a chance at a decent life,” the military official said.
The program is overseen by Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone, who ran similar effort in Iraq that led to the release of tens of thousands of detainees.
“Make no mistake, detainees operation is certainly a battlefield,” Gen. Stone wrote in a strategy document for Iraq.
“It is the battlefield of the mind, and it is one of the most important fights in counterinsurgency.”
The US invaded Afghanistan in 2001 following the 9/11 attacks to topple the ruling Taliban and ally Al-Qaeda.
The Bagram base, where 625 people are being held without charges in wire mesh cages, has a notorious reputation of torture of humiliation of detainees.
Winning Hearts
The rehabilitation program is seen as a new effort by the Obama administration to regain support of the Afghan civilians.
“Every civilian casualty however caused is a defeat for us and a setback for the Afghan government,” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said at a meeting with NATO defense ministers.
“We need to make more changes in the way we conduct our operations.”
Gates said the civilian killings in NATO airstrikes are “one of our greatest strategic vulnerabilities” for US in Afghanistan.
“As we get more forces on the ground in the country, my hope would be that the need for that would be reduced.”
Anger has been growing in Afghanistan over the trigger-happy behavior of foreign troops in Afghanistan.
Analysts have repeatedly warned that the indiscriminate killing of civilians is turning ordinary Afghans against foreign troops and eroding fragile public support for the West-backed government of Hamid Karzai.
During the meeting, new commander of US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, Liet. Gen. Stanley McChrystal unveiled plans for an “information war”.
The plans aim to fund dozens of civilian public relations advisors to work with the Afghan government to win the confidence of the Afghan people.
“When we are in position, one of the things we’ll do is review all of our rules of engagement and all the instructions to our units, with the emphasis that we are fighting for the population,” he told.
“That involves protecting them both from the enemy and from unintended consequences of our operation, because we know that although an operation may be conducted for the right reason, if it has negative effects it can have a negative outcome for everyone.”