When in Rome
Afghanistan isn’t a real country, and never has been. It’s simply a place on the map where other nations aren’t, filled up with various nationalities, tribes, and sub-tribes.
Whoever was in charge in Kabul was usually considered the recognized government, but if his writ extended beyond the capital and his own tribal area, it was usually through a combination of bribes and threats. And, occassionally — as in the Soviet and American invastions — with outside assistance. As a rule, however, the local warlords ruled locally, no matter what Kabul said.
Now we learn that some of Afghanistan’s warlords are. . . American soldiers:
Using techniques developed and used with great success as far back as World War II, Special Forces A Teams are operating in remote Afghan valleys, and forming their own small armies by hiring local Afghans to help catch any Taliban or al Qaeda who might come through. U.S. troops have hired armed Afghans in the past, but from local warlords. This did not work too well. The warlord who supplied the troops had their own agendas. This included not getting any of their lads killed, and being open to bribery from the opposition. All of this is considered traditional in the Afghan scheme of things. A warlord becomes a warlord by having enough money to pay troops, some way to raise more money to keep paying them, and enough battlefield sense to keep down friendly casualties. Any warlord who misses too many payrolls, or gets too many of his guys killed, finds that no one wants to follow him anymore. A warlord without gunmen is no longer a warlord.
The Special Forces understand all this, and now they are, well, behaving like warlords. Special Forces troops have been establishing contacts throughout the southeastern Afghan border area over the last two years. So when a dozen Special Forces troops show up with guns and money, they are not treated as enemies.
Read the whole thing.
Cool . I like people smart enough to change their methods to match the reality of the situation instead of just following dogma.
However, I do hope that these boys have read Joseph Conrads “Heart Of Darkness” for the perils of going native.
Col. Kurtz – Call your office!
TO: Stephen Green
RE: History Lessons
Looks like we could get our own version of the Gurkas, if we applied ourselves, here.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
P.S. Next Afghans vs. Gurka. See it in the arena, tonight!
No rules!
And *the world* thinks we don’t pay attention.
The learning effect of intimate contact with the enemy on his own turf is what I see. Adapt, improvise, overcome – and in the process develop a lot of ‘human capital’, aka street smarts, about the enemy. The rational approach wins, every time.
Repeat on a larger scale – enlist moderate Islam to crush radical Islamist fascism. Gives a rational meaning to ‘multilateral’, does it not? We don’t need a lot of frightened Europeans, just some gutsy, determined, and relatively reasonable muslims.
Hmm, I seem to recall snarky comments made about the implausibility of the ignorant and monolingual Yanks to do this sort of thing, from, let me see if I remember…oh yeah JUST ABOUT EVERY LEFTY, EUROWEENIE, AND ANTI-AMERICAN WANKER IN THE WORLD !
oh. the irony is rich !
but the us is too immature to conduct itself appropriately in the world!
you need the wise and sage advice and approval of la frawnce!!!
can we hurry up and invade france? i’d really like to get a deeply discounted building on la place des voges!
maybe get a nice premier cru chateau as part of the spoils hehehe
The hard part is finding something for them to grow that pays as well as opium poppies on that hardscrabble ground. Special Forces guys handing out cash and guns can’t last forever. Eventually we’ll defeat the Taliban and Al Qaeda or they’ll melt away and lie low again. There’s got to be some kind of sustainable economy or it all just starts up when we leave. Even without the Taliban there’s still too many warlords.
Sounds like this to me.
“Hmm, I seem to recall snarky comments made about the implausibility of the ignorant and monolingual Yanks to do this sort of thing, from, let me see if I remember…oh yeah JUST ABOUT EVERY LEFTY, EUROWEENIE, AND ANTI-AMERICAN WANKER IN THE WORLD!”
But I guarantee you the “Euroweenies” (well-put, by the way) wouldn’t agree with this either. Too uncivilized, typical of us violent, gun-loving Yanks. When Europe starts blubbering in their condescending, superior tone to America, using words like “the world” and “international community” what they really mean is “Europe.”
Time for an update of the movie “The Man Who Would Be King”, maybe?
(Brilliant film BTW).
Hey, “American Warlord” sounds like a cool reality show!
WAR: American Warlord
Hey, doesn’t that sound like a cool reality show? But it’s also the military strategy du jour in Afghanistan. Link via Vodkapundit….
So there is a lot of happy chatting about US “warlords” in Afghanistan. I bet they control their dominions as effectively as the US is building up a police force in Iraq.
Have you ver tried to look at it from the side of the Afghan “clients”? They would be stupid not to collect the money and the goodies handed out. Whether you get anything valuable in return remains to be seen.
The Iraqui resistance does seem to enjoy the training they get by day from US troops. It regularly puts it into practice against them by night.