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Bringing peace and stability

Friday, November 21, 2008, 07:00

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IF ANYONE doubts why Plymouth Royal Marines and Commandos are risking life and limb in the inhospitable environment of Afghanistan, our report will provide some of the answers. As our reporter Tristan Nichols discovered during his visit to the dangerous streets of the strife-torn country's capital Kabul, troops from our city are giving war-weary residents vital security which is helping to transform their lives. In the relatively safe, secure and prosperous environment of Plymouth, where many residents are busily preparing for the festival of excess that Christmas has become, it is hard to imagine what dangers and rigours ordinary people in Kabul have to endure every day. For them, the concept of visiting supermarkets groaning with food and drink, or shopping centres packed with the latest electrical gadgets and fashions, is totally alien. Just to get the basics to survive is a big enough challenge. Casting a long and forbidding shadow over their everyday lives is the constant threat of danger and death from insurgents, determined to wreck the stability and routine which the International Security Assistance Force – including men from Plymouth – is attempting to establish. Just what this means to those Afghans who dream only of living in peace cannot be underestimated. Yet the impact is immense. As one Afghan village elder told The Herald: "We feel peaceful and secure here in this area with the British. They have looked after us." That simple message speaks volumes for the scale, impact and success of the job which Plymouth troops are doing – and why they are risking their lives so far from home, away from their families. From February, control of patrolling and security duties in Kabul will be handed over to the Afghan National Police. In the meantime, the men of Bickleigh's 42 Commando are providing something which most of us back home take for granted, but which many Afghan residents can only dream of – safety. Meanwhile, The Herald is proud to have played its part in keeping the families of those serving in 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery in touch with what their loved ones are doing on the Afghanistan front line. The Helmand Herald is the first of five newsletters which will be sent out to families, wives and girlfriends around the world. We hope they enjoy it.