The Italian ambassador to Afghanistan, Luciano Pezzotti, describes how Italy’s troops are shifting to a training and advisory role in the country and how he sees their strategy to have been successful.
The current Isaf [International Security Assistance Force] mission will finish at the end of this year. The new mission will last for two years.
According to current planning, this mission will be divided into two phases.
The first keeps the deployment on a regional basis, which means that some countries, like Italy, will keep the command of the region that they have operated in for the past 10 years.
We will remain in our Herat base for all of next year. From 2016, the mission will be concentrated only in Kabul.
We are committed to giving about 800 troops. Of course, there are no more combat troops – they are just conducting training, advising and assistance.
This is an extension, in some ways, of the last mission. You cannot just shut the door and go away after 11 years.
We have had many accomplishments. But we are still very aware that there is a job to be done: increasing the capabilities of the Afghan National Security Forces to face the enemy.
Our presence will be important also for civilians, as they feel reassured to see foreign troops remain.
It’s important to not just walk away because we belong to an alliance, a coalition. We have a responsibility together with all allies – with the Americans, with the Germans, with the British. Both Nato and Isaf coalition members have a serious responsibility to help the Afghans.
Italy has spent about €800 million (Dh3.68 billion) over the past 11 years on projects to improve the lives of Afghans. This includes help to build hospitals, schools, roads. We are also upgrading the airport in Herat so international carriers can operate there.
We have committed an additional €220m over the next three years for additional projects. So our civilian engagement in Afghanistan will be even longer than the military one. Even if the military leaves, the civilian engagement will remain for many, many years to come.
I don’t need to remind you of September 11. After that tragic event immediate action was taken mainly by the US at first. And Italy was among the first countries to stand by their American allies. We sent troops to Afghanistan at the end of 2001, before the Isaf mission started. We were part of the coalition against terrorism since the beginning. Despite some voices against our involvement in Iraq, there were no voices in Italy against our involvement in Afghanistan because the feeling was that we should stand with our American allies to face terrorism together. This is part of the mission. There is no direct financial stake for us in Afghanistan. But in our lives we all have a global stake in Afghanistan.
There were 53 Italian troops killed in combat in Afghanistan. At the beginning of 2012, when I arrived in Kabul, we had about 5,000 soldiers. We had many bases, forward bases, staging bases. There will be approximately 800 at the end of the year and they are already staying mainly inside the base, at the camp.
Our biggest success in western Afghanistan was not only fighting insurgents but also connecting with Afghans. We never had any kind of issue with the population.
How did this success happen? This depends not just on the foreign troops, but also on the environment. There are some parts of Afghanistan that are in difficult conditions. This is especially true in the south and in the east, where mostly American troops were stationed.
Those were really the areas where the Taliban was strongest. So confrontation was stronger.
I can’t say that in the western region there weren’t Taliban. There were. But we can’t compare different regions and say we were better than others.
But Italian troops have always been distinctive by having these kinds of relationships with populations. What we call the civilian-military cooperation is for us very important. Establishing a relationship with the population at every level. To show them that we are not their enemy and that we are not there to hurt them or take advantage of their country. I think we had great success in establishing this empathy with the population.
Of course, we have been attacked. We had many causalities. But in terms of confrontation with civilians, we never had any problems. We respected their values, their traditional values, their religious values.
This mission lasted for 15 years. We can’t make the mistake to think that all problems have been solved.
There are many areas that will need more assistance. On different terms than in the past, but they need to be assisted. The civilian part will be the most prevalent part in the coming years.