Mohammad Kaka fought the Russians toe to toe. He and his band of resistance fighters destroyed an entire Soviet armored division during the fighting in Logar Province in the 1980’s. He was a leader from a young age, a man whose intellect and cunning made him a formidable force on the battlefield. He came of age in the war, and in countless engagements defended his home from an enemy whose wanton ruthlessness killed more than ten percent of Afghanistan's population in a decade of horror.
When the Russians withdrew in 1989, Kaka rose to become the most respected elder in Sork hab Valley, a remote and sparsely populated area of Logar that includes about five villages.
By the time the United States arrived in Logar, Kaka was the power broker for Sork hab Valley. Revered by the villagers as their greatest war hero, Mohammad Kaka lived in a house overlooking the valley and sat only a few hundred meters from one of his Soviet-era battlefields.
In the fall of 2010, I met Mohammad Kaka while out with the Ground Combat Platoon and Brawler Six, LTC Robert Ault. ( http://theunawriterslair.typepad.com/the_unawriters_lair_guns_/2010/11/brawler-six.html) Task Force Brawler was justifiably proud of the relationship between this Afghan warrior and their commanding officer. In many ways, the trust that these two men built with their unlikely friendship symbolized to me the only way we are going to make progress in Afghanistan.
This war is a grass roots battle for every village. The urban areas are largely in coalition control. But without the rural provinces secure and pro-Kabul, there is no hope of defeating the Taliban. This war will be determined in the tiny, remote villages. When the Taliban gains one, they use it as a springboard to launch attacks ever deeper inside Afghanistan. In Logar, these towns, as they fell to the enemy, were used as bases and safe houses for cells tasked with attacking targets in Kabul itself.
Kaka was the key to an area that looked, at first glance, to have no strategic value. Off the main roads and set well away from the provincial capital, it would seem logical that the war would pass Sork hab by. This was not the case. Back in the Soviet era, the valley came under constant attack by Red Army MI-24 Hind helicopters and armored infantry assaults. The villagers who worked the orchards in the valley floor became targets. Passing helicopters would murder them while they sought to harvest their crops or tend to their trees. Life became so unbearable that most of the population fled to Pakistan.
Those few who remained, like Kaka, used the valley to move supplies from Pakistan into the heart of Afghanistan. Sorkhab became the conduit the Mujahadeen needed, and the Russians used every amount of firepower at their disposal to try and choke that line off. In one case, the Afghan resistance sent a column of supply-laden horses and mules down the Sork hab corridor. Betrayed by one of their own, the column was attacked by Soviet aircraft and over a hundred animals were killed.
In 2010, the Taliban reopened that old supply route into Pakistan. Once again, Sork hab became a strategic node on that rat line. Once that happened, the villages became Taliban targets. Control those and the supply line would be more secure. And so, the Taliban went after Sork hab’s leadership; if they could turn the local elders away from the coalition, the population would follow. It is a standard part of the Taliban playbook, and it has been highly effective.
According to Kaka, the Taliban kidnapped him, took him to Pakistan and held him for ransom. They let him go after his family paid the ransom and he agreed to help facilitate IED attacks around the valley. If he did not participate, the Taliban told him they would kill him and his family.
After two American engineers were killed by one of those IED attacks, Kaka was detained by elements working with the 173rd Airborne. While in detention, the other elders in Sork hab came to the 173rd and pleaded for his release. The decision was made that if Kaka publically swore allegiance to the Kabul government, he would be let go and returned to his family. This is a controversial program, but in this case it worked.
Kaka faced the same cruel choice countless Afghans face right now: support the coalition and earn the wrath of the Taliban, or support the Taliban and earn the wrath of the coalition. Both sides raid houses at night. Both sides can wield a lot of firepower. And both sides can do a lot of damage to these communities should they choose to apply that firepower. The Taliban just sticks around afterwards, and we go back to our FOB’s and COP’s.
Kaka chose to side with us. In a public ceremony, he swore loyalty to the Kabul government. After he did, LTC Ault met him and a genuine friendship formed between the two men. Brawler Six and the GCP went out many times to Sork hab and initiated many public works projects in the area. In return, American and ANA troops were safe in the valley. The IED attacks in the area ceased.
At a time when so much of Logar had fallen under Taliban rule, what LTC Ault and Mohammad Kaka accomplished in Sork hab is nothing short of amazing. The GCP was treated like rock stars there. The villagers followed the Americans around and celebrated their arrival. They gave the Americans food and drink. Kaka had the GCP over for lunch in his house.
I was invited to lunch with the GCP at Kaka’s house in October, 2010. I was already heartened to see the warmth so evidently displayed between Brawler and the local villagers, but when I ate lunch at Kaka’s house, I was truly astonished at how LTC Ault, Lt. Evan Mace, Captain Joe Pruitt, Captain Andrew Alvord and the rest of the GCP were treated by our Afghan hosts. The friendship there was real. The trust between the Afghans and the Americans, while not total, was strong enough to accomplish what both sides needed.
This was the way forward in a counter-insurgency war.
Kaka gave his word that we would not be harmed, and no member of the ISAF coalition was during these visits. Sork hab was safe enough for us to take off our body armor.
At Kaka’s house, I felt awkward taking off my IBA, but I did it so that I did not offend our host. Later, that awkwardness vanished when I saw the uniqueness of the bond the Americans and Afghans here had established. I stepped outside and walked around near Kaka’s house without body armor and helmet and thought to myself, “This type of relationship is the future for us in this country.” If we can’t connect with men like Kaka, we don’t have a chance of bringing peace to that shattered land.
For the past several months, I’ve been working on a book about Task Force Brawler’s relationship with the people of Sork hab Valley. It has been a sustaining passion of mine to be able to tell this remarkable story.
Tonight I learned that in May, the Taliban assassinated Kaka. Task Force Brawler has been home since November. The units still in Logar Province are stretched so thin they simply do not have the resources to protect men like Kaka from Taliban retribution. We cannot stabilize the country without them, and as each courageous leader allied with us is murdered, we lose another chunk of the country to a violent and evil enemy.
We failed Kaka. He risked his life to put his trust in us, and we were unable to return that trust with the security he needed. I fear that Sork hab will soon be so terrorized by the Taliban, the villages will turn away from the coalition. For the people there, it is not a matter of principles or politics. It is elemental survival. And if nothing else, Afghans are survivors. They will do whatever it takes to keep their families alive. If we Americans were in their shoes, trapped between bitter enemies, I have no doubt we would do the same thing.
No amount of money, construction material or school supplies can ever hope to win over a local population whose security we cannot guarantee. If accepting our help gets their people killed, we have no hope of success.
We failed Kaka and the people of his valley. We also failed LTC Ault and everyone in Task Force Brawler. They devoted their hearts to Sork hab Valley and made it the main effort of their self-started COIN initiative. With great dedication and effort, they won the trust of the people. Today, as news of Kaka’s death spreads through the task force, I know they are hurting. A lot of questions will be asked, a lot of soul searching will be done. Anger, frustration, grief. I wish there was something I could do for them. The only thing I can offer are words, and those some pathetically inadequate right now.
Though I didn’t know Kaka beyond a handshake and some small talk, I will mourn his death this weekend, both for the effect it has had on my friends here in America, and for the implications his assassination has on the people of Sork hab.
Mohammad Kaka was a survivor. His friendship with LTC Ault and TF Brawler was strong enough to start projects that made life in the valley a little easier. In return, peace reigned in that one small piece of Logar Province.
If only it hadn’t been temporary.
Mohammad Kaka, Veteran of the Soviet War, leader of Sork hab Valley. ?-May, 2011.
Rest in Peace Kaka the GCP will not forget the things we our Platoon and your Village have done for each other
Local 22
Posted by: Matt (Local 22) | August 03, 2011 at 06:16 PM