Op Achilles, the Kajaki Dam, and the next milestone

Canadian troops are engaged in interdiction operations in the border area between Kandahar and Helmand provinces, keeping Taliban insurgents from escaping the kinetic ops directed at them in Helmand, while also preventing resupply from Kandahar. Our role in Operation Achilles, to date, has been as a "hard shoulder" that figuratively knocks down enemy fighters when they run into it.

Of course, our participation is just one aspect of Op Achilles, as this article indicates:

"[Some] 4,500 NATO troops with 1,000 Afghan national security forces are active there and they focus on Helmand Province in the southern part of Afghanistan," de Hoop Scheffer said. "The aim of the operation is to create security -- more security -- in the south, and in particular, to allow [for] the installation of a turbine in the Kajaki dam."

There are more than 14,000 reconstruction projects under way in Afghanistan. But Hoop de Scheffer says the Kajaki dam has the most strategic and psychological significance. That's because of the economic benefits residents of the area are expected to reap once reconstruction is finished.

"When the turbine in that dam is [installed] it will give power to 2 million people and their businesses. It will provide irrigation for hundreds of farmers. And it will create jobs for 2,000 people," de Hoop Scheffer said. "The Taliban, the spoilers, are attacking this project every day to [try to] stop it from going forward."

While the article quotes those who believe the operation isn't achieving its stated goals, I'm encouraged to note that the ANSF are operating with less and less NATO support - only communications and CAS in the most recent case.

At the end of the day, having Afghans secure their own nation while important, multi-faceted development projects like the Kajaki Dam are completed will be a measure of the mission's overall progress.

From securing Kabul, to the hard-won tactical victories of Operation Medusa, to the less violent and correspondingly less obvious progress made with Op Baaz Tsuka, to the near-completion of Route Summit, to the overwhelmingly development- and governance-focused objectives of Op Achilles, there is a steady strategic progression at work here.

It will be interesting to see what NATO and Afghan initiative comes next. I'm certain I'm not alone in predicting this will be a pivotal spring season in Afghanistan.