American and Afghan officials have begun helping a number of anti-Taliban militias that have independently taken up arms against insurgents in several parts of Afghanistan, prompting hopes of a large-scale tribal rebellion against the Taliban. The emergence of the militias, which took some leaders in Kabul by surprise, has so encouraged the American and Afghan officials that they are planning to spur the growth of similar armed groups across the Taliban heartland in the southern and eastern parts of the country.
The American and Afghan officials say they are hoping the plan, called the Community Defense Initiative, will bring together thousands of gunmen to protect their neighborhoods from Taliban insurgents. Already there are hundreds of Afghans who are acting on their own against the Taliban, officials say. The endeavor represents one of the most ambitious - and one of the riskiest - plans for regaining the initiative against the Taliban, who are fighting more vigorously than at any time since 2001. By harnessing the militias, American and Afghan officials hope to rapidly increase the number of Afghans fighting the Taliban...
More at The New York Times.
Comments
I agree with what the author in "Free Range International" (FRI) writes. Many on SWJ and other areas have advocated something similiar....that US troops get off of the FOBs and live in the villages.
SOF troops dropping in from helicopters sounds almost as useless as what conventional forces are doing via UAH or MRAP.....commuter COIN ops. Are those SOF troops living in those villages? Some probably are, but I suspect most are not. God forbid we put a Soldier in harm's way.
FRI is spot on.....make better use of our forces, including conventional, regular infantry units - get off the FOBs, and out into the villages....and those troops ought to stay there for longer than a year if we want to develop, cultivate, and maximize the relationships with the locals that are of great importance to them. If they trust us, they will help us. Seems pretty simple.
Admin note: I deleted a comment by one of our site visitors and am replacing it with this - same context - different way of wording it:
<a href="http://freerangeinternational.com/blog/">Free Range International</a> takes exception to the article above.