James J. Lee, AFJ staff Retired Army Lt. Gen. David Barno is the former commander of Joint Task Force Afghanistan.

The fight in Afghanistan has changed since U.S. and combined forces first responded to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but it remains both relevant and important today, said retired Army Lt. Gen. David Barno, the former commander of Joint Task Force Afghanistan.

Speaking on his first official day as a civilian, the newly retired general told attendees of the Armed Forces Journal conference Power & Limits of Jointness in Washington, D.C., on June 1 that Afghanistan is undergoing a significant era of change and that the key to continued success there is to stay the course.

“Why is Afghanistan still important today? It has to do with the neighborhood, who we want to influence and who we want to remain our friends,” he said. The presence of U.S. and NATO troops has had a mitigating and positive influence over neighboring countries such as Pakistan, Tajikistan and other former satellites of the Soviet Union, and even Iran, said Barno, who commanded 21,000 troops in Afghanistan for 19 months.

His arrival in 2003 coincided with a significant change in military strategy from raid-based operations conducted out of fixed bases to one that planted companies and platoons out among the Afghan people. This meant that troops could “own the turf and have responsibility for it,” he said. It also yielded high dividends militarily through better intelligence gathering and among the Afghan people, whose culture values such long-term relationships, Barno said.

But the switch from a force-on-force approach to a focus on counterinsurgency was difficult for U.S. troops, Barno noted, since the Army had no current counterinsurgency doctrine at the time. Until one was developed, soldiers ordered various counterinsurgency books online through BooksAMillion.com, which shipped them to Afghanistan, he said.

While Barno noted the significant progress that has been made to date, citing successful presidential and parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, it will take relentless willpower and tenacity on the part of the U.S. and NATO to secure victory in the region, he said. The Afghan people still ask whether the U.S. will abandon them again, said Barno.

“The key will be the people of Afghanistan, keeping them on side” and for them to have hope for a better future, he said.

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