Recent Discussion
zenpundit says:
This is excellent blogging Steve – something more interesting than journalism. I am perturbed...
historyguy99 says:
Steve, Your pen painted an image that even the best video could not pick up. Reading the...
Khalil Nouri says:
As promised here is the article: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2 010/03/13/khalil-nouri-afgh...
andrew lubin says:
These Afghan boys can surely fight, and it’s good to see how you picked this up. And oh my...
andrew lubin says:
Good stuff Steve; glad you made it over! S/F
Tag Archives: tribal mindet
In Defense of Hamid Karzai
Discussion of the problems created by tribalism in Afghanistan often provokes from our own compatriots such outraged responses as, “Hey, who are we Americans to talk? We have our share of tribes too!” There’s no arguing with that. Here at home we’ve got the Bible-thumping cracker tribe, the latte-sipping liberal tribe and dozens more, all [...]
Posted in Afghanistan, Editorial, On Tribalism Also tagged Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, Tribalism, tribes 4 Comments
Weekend Mashup—August 21 to 23
This past week, the New York Times ran the op-ed “The Land of 10,000 Wars” by Ganesh Sitaraman. Hard to resist the urge to post the entire op-ed here. Check it out if you haven’t read it already.
The challenge for General McChrystal is creating a comprehensive and integrated strategy for Afghanistan out of the hundreds, [...]
Posted in Mashup Also tagged Afghanistan, Captain Michael Harrison, Center for a New American Security, Ganesh Sitaraman, General McChrystal, Geopolitical diary, Jim Gant, John Nagl, National Defense University, Neptunus Lex, New York Times, Ramadi, Seth G. Jones, Stratfor, T.X. Hammes, Taliban, Tom Daly, Tribalism, troops, Vietnam, Wall Street Journal, Washington Unplugged 1 Comment
Tribes, the Taliban and the Death of Baitullah Mahsud
I was very interested last week to see what would happen, in terms of leadership succession among the Pakistani Taliban, after the reputed death of Baitullah Mahsud. According to scores of press reports as well as Pakistani and Taliban spokesmen, the immediate aftermath was a shootout involving two rival successors, Hakimullah Mahsud and Wali ur-Rehman, [...]
Posted in Afghanistan, Editorial, On Tribalism Also tagged Afghanistan, Baitullah Mahsud, Pakistan, Taliban, Tribalism, tribes, troops 1 Comment
The Bizarro World of COIN in a Tribal Setting
Remember the Bizarro World, from Seinfeld and Superman comics? Everything is its opposite in the Bizarro World. Up is down, black is white, in is out.
Students of Counterinsurgency (COIN) and Tribal Engagement tell us it’s the same in their field. Who would have thought, for example, that killing bad guys would be a no-no? Or [...]
One Tribe At A Time #4: The Full Document at last!