ARTICLE: New Joint Effort Aims to Empower Afghan Tribes to Guard Themselves, By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post, March 31, 2008; Page A15ARTICLE: U.S. Unsure About the Future of Iraq's 'Sons', By Walter Pincus, March 31, 2008; Page A17
Put these two side by side and you have to wonder about the answer to the request/question that Petraeus himself famously asked in 2003 about Iraq: "Tell me how this ends." If we go down this route, I'd want much more buy-in from regional pillars, which in Afghanistan will end up including the Chinese and Russians, like it or not. Iranians too.
It just gets me worried about the sustainability of it all. When we start arming a cauldron and don't create the regional security overlay, do we make the place more stable and connected or less?
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Comments (2)
In my neighborhood, ALL the neighbors have to come to some sort of agreement that a problem exists . . If not, then those who either disagree or are non committal become a large part of the problem . .
Posted by large | April 5, 2008 10:46 AM
And one challenge to getting that agreement is the egos of the people involved. To use the examples of these articles, forcing Iraq and Afganistan into a "all police are national" model doesn't work; the countries are too big and too diverse. The fact that we ourselves don't work that way should be a big clue. Yet how many people in the central governments of those countries can stomach a multi-tiered law enforcement structure when that would mean a loss of power?
Posted by Michael
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April 5, 2008 7:35 PM