The US and Afghan governments have announced a new policy to pay tribal militias to provide security in Afghanistan. This began as a measure to deter Taliban attacks during recent elections but is set to become permanent.
Almost point for point, this plan repeats the terrible mistake that the British colonial army made in the Pashtun tribal areas in what would become Pakistan, in the late 19th century.
The British disrupted local Pashtun power balances by injecting outside money into tribal politics. British intelligence officers created charts of which sub-tribes and leaders (or maliks) had the most influence, and paid them extra money. The favored maliks in turn used these funds for patronage, paying off their supporters. Canny Pashtun factions second-guessed the British, creating security problems that they then "solved" to look more powerful. British payments to the new "official maliks" became hereditary. This system violated the tribal code of equality among all Pashtun men, but the official maliks accepted it with enthusiasm...
More at The New York Times.
Comments
I've read, several times, but I am not knowledgeable enough to assess this information, that the Soviet invasion, which forced thousands of refugees into long-term Pakistani camps, created a generation of Afghanis that were denied the benefit of tribal ties and loyalties as well as norms for social interaction. So the story goes, they grew up in the camps under the influence of Islamic extremists and the Taliban was born.
I'd like to hear more about this. True, untrue, or partially true?
Someone more up to date then myself correct me, and/or elaborate further. After so many years of fighting, eachother, the Soviets, the Taliban, etc. How consistant are the Afghan tribe relationships in sticking together? Has there been any social re-engineering between the younger and the older?
I was lead to believe some of the Sunni approached us in Iraq and were already on their way toward establishing militias?
Conversely, we are approaching the Afghan-that is to say: have any of the tribes approached us with such an idea? Does anyone know what's on their mind, and which minds we should be talking to?
In the old days, the HUMINT crowd would say you can buy a Pakastani, but you can rent an Afghan - is that still true?