I'll just make one comment on this that Christian hits on and that certainly struck me when I read this paper shortly after it came out. The program this officer suggests means taking sides in local conflicts that have nothing to do with our own interests in the region, which would likely mire us further in Afghanistan. That is not to say that we shouldn't "engage" the "tribes" in other ways, but giving them each (or at least the ones we choose) their own personal special forces team is probably not the answer. FID was not designed to solve land disputes (unless we were training democracy-loving people screwed out of land by dirty communists of course).
Also check out Security Crank and Michael Cohen.
I was about ten seconds from posting this when I saw that you'd put it up.
ReplyDeleteI had something too, but there's not much to say after Christian's dissection. That this guy is getting so much play is depressing. Time to let the Orientalism die.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this differs from / adds to any of the views. I'll just say that what Gant apparently advocates doesn't seem to be a solution to the ends we seek. To me, this is about as relevant as someone coming up with a new ingenious way of conducting a breach of a mined wire obstacle and declaring it to be the magic bullet for A'Stan. Perhaps it is brilliant tactical creativy, but it doesn't have any relevance to the desired endstate.
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