How to Mobilize the Tribal Chiefs of Afghanistan against the Taliban

By Con George-Kotzabasis

There is a great possibility of replicating the Surge in Afghanistan with the following economic-political-military strategy: To shift the estuary of the stream of revenue from narcotics from the Taliban’s and narco-lords’ mouths to the government mouth with the aim to feed the hungry mouths of the tribal chiefs of Afghanistan. That is, to nationalize the poppy industry and make the tribal chiefs of Afghanistan the direct equity holders of the income that accrues from the production of opium. Such a policy will create a powerful self-interest and lead to a Tribal Chief’s awakening that will be more widespread and potent than the Iraqi one, since it will mobilize the whole country, through its tribal chiefs, against the Taliban and the narco-lords.

Thus U.S. forces will not have to go to a wild goose chase of serendipity to get “their lucky break.”

This idea was floated by me in a paper of mine on October 2008.

No Misunderstanding of a Changing Taliban Front

I'm republishing the following short piece for the browsers of this new blog.

A reply by Con George-Kotzabasis to:

Understanding a Changing Taliban Front

Post Global, June 23, 2008

By Dr. Ali Ettefagh

In an apocalyptic religious cult as the Taliban, criminality has no separate existence as all means of warfare are justifiable in the eyes of fanatics. A “conditional amnesty” follows the rudimentary stage of defeat of the Taliban in the field of battle and cannot be a precursor of that defeat “that should be traded with the Taliban promise to re-group as a non-violent, unarmed political party in Afghanistan”. This follows the logic of the Irish experience, as Dr. Ettefagh himself points out, with the realization “of Irish militants that they could not win and had to settle for a deal”.

Hence, “a changing Taliban front” must not be based on the misunderstanding that NATO and the  Americans should start negotiating with the Taliban before the ”umbilical cord” of the latter is cut from Pakistan and thus strategically weakening it. And this cut can only be accomplished by the incursion of Coalition and American troops of Pakistan’s borders and the destruction of Taliban and al Qaeda sanctuaries and supplies.

In a war of global borderless terror, a nation that cannot prevent, either due to a political unwillingness or military incapacity, terrorists from using its territory as havens of safety, supplies and recruitment, the principle of national sovereignty is completely inconsistent with the military and strategic goals of such war and is inherently obsolete.  

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