Previously, I discussed the role of providing services (health, education, sanitation, etc…) in counterinsurgency. After security, services represent a critical component in winning hearts and minds and strengthening the legitimacy of the state. With threats to personal security in Iraq on the decline (but still high), the provision of services is gaining increasing importance and this fact has not gone unnoticed by the US military.
Iraq contains a massive and intricate irrigation system of canals and pumping stations. The water it supplies and the flooding it controls are essential to the agriculturally dominated southern Iraq. Much of this canal system was left unusable after the initial 2003 invasion, either through direct damage or simply lack of maintenance. The fields the canal system supports are a sizable proportion of the Iraqi domestic economy.
The fact that a provisional reconstruction team (PRT) is repairing the irrigation canals and their pumping stations is mildly interesting, but nothing to write home about. However, what stands out is the fact that they are using a valuable security resource in an unorthodox way to do it:
In order to help the GoI monitor and maintain the canals, 2nd BCT Soldiers came up with a high-tech solution. In addition to Soldiers performing foot patrols and SoI guarding key points, 2nd BCT Soldiers regularly keep a watch on the canals with unmanned aerial vehicles.
“We’ve done this with every single canal,” Clegg said. “We had (the MoWR) supply us a map, showing the direction of flow. Then we stepped it up with UAV coverage. This actually allowed us to see where the water is flowing.” [Emphasis mine]
Clegg says the images are declassified and shown to MoRW officials every week to give them the information they need.
Simply put, the PRT is using UAV surveillance flights to monitor the status of irrigation canal flows. This is the first example I have found of UAVs being used in a non-security function to improve services to Iraqi civilians. The use of UAVs, a much prized resource amongst commanders, hints at the new importance placed on providing services (particularly water); a ’service surge’ if you will. It is also a reminder of the remarkable flexibility of the US military.
Last friday at 9:30pm local time, a Taliban suicide bomber detonated his vehicle at the gate of Kandahar city’s Sarposa prison. Following the blast, witnesses report 30 motorcycles entered the breach and blew a second hole in the rear wall of the prison. During the following firefight nine hundred prisoners escaped.
Colonel Thomas J. McGrath of the Afghanistan Regional Security Integration Command - South (ARSIC-South), attended a Department of Defense Blogger’s Roundtable this morning to discuss the aftermath of last week’s prison break in Kandahar. You can listen to the entire conference call here. Significant to this blog, according to Col. McGrath the prison break has had no immediate effect on humanitarian, MEDCAP, or PRT programs. That is good news, however I worry the increased Taliban presence in the region might disrupt the programs in the future. Nevertheless, Col. McGrath was confident in the ability of Afghan and Coalition forces not to be derailed by the prison break, “We are making a lot of progress here.”
We wish him luck.