Afghanistan - Mission Impossible
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As the war in Afghanistan continues, reporter Stephen Grey conducts an unprecedented series of interviews with senior military commanders. Are British soldiers engaged in a mission impossible?
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Afghanistan - Mission Impossible?
As war in Afghanistan persists and British soldiers continue to lose their lives fighting an…
Next Episode: FRI 10 APR,2:00 AM on Channel 4
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Afghanistan: Who's Who?
Read more about some of the key British military pers onnel featured in Afgh anistan: Mission Impo ssible?
REPORTER - STEPHEN GREY
The Making of Mission Impossible?
I got my first taste of the war in Helmand nearly 18 months back when I joined a group of…
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The Making of Mission Impossible?
EXCLUSIVE
THURSDAY 02 APRIL 2009
REPORTER - STEPHEN GREY
I got my first taste of the war in Helmand nearly 18 months back when I joined a group of British soldiers on a mission to recapture the then Taliban stronghold of Musa Qala.
It was a shocking introduction: I saw the British troops, fighting alongside the Afghan Army and US special forces, in action against the Taliban; I also came under direct fire for the first time in my life. I survived unscathed but I saw not only Taliban killed but Afghan civilians being killed by coalition troops after they were mistaken for suicide bombers.
Then continuing my 'embed' with B Company of the 2nd Battalion, the Yorkshire Regiment, I was standing close-by a day later when one of their vehicles struck a mine, killing one of the soldiers.
All this set off very conflicting emotions – and made me want to understand if any purpose lay behind the bloodshed. It led to a book that I've spent the last year researching – Operation Snakebite – which tries to tell the full story. As soldiers will tell you: 'There's the official version, and then there's what really happened!' I try to uncover the latter.
Among my discoveries as I conducted more than 200 interviews (all the way up through the ranks) was a real debate within the military about why British men and women were dying in Afghanistan, whether the right strategy had been adopted and whether the right strategy was being adopted now. Most disturbingly, many were asking whether anyone was really in control of the mission.
Privately, some senior commanders said the deployment to Helmand, Afghanistan, in the spring of 2006, had been perceived at the outset as an uncontroversial operation that could help serve as an antidote to the poisonous dissension over the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
But, sadly, they would argue to me, the dispatch of combat troops into this war zone – leading the heaviest fighting faced by the British Army since the Korean War - was conducted with almost as poor advance intelligence and planning as for Iraq.
I realised that while the intensity of this conflict was becoming known, and the sacrifice of the soldiers was becoming all too obvious from the death toll, the generals leading the war had faced little public scrutiny. Dispatches asked film director Tom Porter and me to remedy this and ask commanders to give their account of the war's progress. The result is Afghanistan: Mission Impossible?
No soldiers of any rank have a free hand to speak to the press or television. In the case of generals, they require permission from their political masters. (I remember a comical scene at Basra Airport, Iraq, a couple of years back, when no less than three press minders tried to block me from approaching and shaking hands with a senior general in case it offended some politician).
Needless to say, it took us months to get the go-ahead from the Ministry of Defence. But, when it finally came, we assembled what was probably the largest cast list of British commanders in recent television history. Willing to face questions was not only Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the chief of the defence staff since the start of the Helmand deployment, but also General Sir Richard Dannatt, chief of the general staff, and General Sir David Richards, who commanded Nato in Afghanistan and is due to be become chief of the general staff in the summer of 2009.
Two former Helmand commanders are interviewed: Brig. Andrew Mackay, whose tour included the recapture of Musa Qala that I witnessed; and Brig. Ed Butler, who led the first tour of Helmand.
Among others, they are joined on the programme by: Col (retired) Stuart Tootal, who led the 3rd Battalion - the Parachute Regiment - into Helmand; recently retired US general Dan McNeill, who succeeded Richards in command of Nato troops in Afghanistan; Michael Semple, the European Union diplomat who held discreet and controversial talks with the Taliban; and former members of B Company that I joined in Musa Qala.
I will leave viewers to judge for themselves what these men have to say.
But it is worth thinking back three years to the moment this mission to southern Afghanistan was announced. Speaking to parliament, then defence secretary John Reid said the mission was to provide security for reconstruction of this war-torn land. It would consist of 3,150 troops, and would cost around one billion pounds for a deployment lasting three years.
Three years later, with more than 8,000 troops deployed, and £4.7 billion spent so far, what's striking is that out of almost everyone we interviewed, almost no one dares now to talk of an end date to this involvement - and almost no one dares state that all the fighting and all the sacrifice so far has left Afghanistan a better place for its citizens.
My very personal feeling is that those who are most critical, those who may come across as bitter, are frequently those who care most about winning this conflict.
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