No "Awakening Strategy" For Afghanistan

German Bundeswehr army soldiers of the 263rd paratroops unit of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) walk in the camp before leaving for a night mission in Kunduz, October 2, 2008. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch (AFGHANISTAN)

'Awakening' Strategy Won't Work in Afghanistan, Top U.S. General Says -- CQ Politics/Spy Talk

The top American commander in Afghanistan says the so-called 'Awakening' strategy that has worked so well in Iraq can't be replicated in Afghanistan.

"The difference in Afghanistan is that there needs to be an Afghan-led effort to engage the tribes," General David D. McKiernan said in passage buried deep in a New York Times story about U.S. efforts to crush the drug trade in Afghanistan.

In Iraq, U.S. commanders paid Sunni tribes that had been attacking American troops to switch sides and go after al Qaeda guerrillas, who were mostly foreign fighters.

Most analysts credit that, rather than the "surge," as the major factor in the dramatically reduced violence in Iraq this year.

But in Afghanistan, McKiernan said, there "is a degree of complexity in the tribal system which is much greater than what I found in Iraq years ago."

He added. "And I also find that of the over 400 major tribal networks inside of Afghanistan, they have been largely, as I said earlier, traumatized by over 30 years of war, so a lot of that traditional tribal structure has broken down."

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My Comment: Putting cold water on any idea of an Iraqi repeat in Afghanistan. This is a confession on the complexities and difficulties confronting NATO planners in Afghanistan.