Organizing Afghans To Fight For Themselves

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U.S. Marines communicate with their command operation center during a raid on a Taliban headquarters in Afghanistan on Aug. 1, 2008. The Marines are from Foxtrot Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. DoD photo by Sgt. Freddy G. Cantu, U.S. Marine Corps. (Released)

To Fight Taliban, US Eyes Afghan Tribes
-- Christian Science Monitor

Some tribes have forced insurgents from their area, but many risks remain.

JALALABAD, AFGHANISTAN - With sticks, knives, and 600 men drawn from his own tribe, Hajji Malik Zahir did what the armies of Afghanistan and America could not: He drove the Taliban from his district.

Now, the United States increasingly wants to encourage other tribal elders in Afghanistan to do the same. In what is taking shape as a substantial policy shift, it wants to use tribes to bring law and order to the vast areas of the country beyond the government's authority.

The successful uprising of tribal chiefs in Iraq against Al Qaeda – the "Anbar Awakening" – has created momentum, as has endemic corruption in President Hamid Karzai's government.

The government is not competent enough to deal with the dire threats now facing Afghanistan, says Seth Jones, an analyst at the RAND Corp., a security consultancy in Arlington, Va., that works with the Pentagon. "This means working with the tribal leaders," he says.

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My Comment: Afghanistan is comprised of hundreds of different groups/tribes/communities with distinct ethnic and cultural characteristics. Like Iraq, the U.S. was successful in bringing many different distinct groups together. Will this be a successful strategy in Afghanistan .... only time will tell.