The Times
Analysis: Jerome Starkey

To some it will be seen as Afghanistan’s magic bullet. To others, supporting the country’s hotch-potch of tribal militias is a sure-fire way of recreating the violence and anarchy that brought the Taleban to power in the first place.

The Community Defence Initiative is the latest euphemism for a controversial plan to enrol armed tribesmen in the fight against insurgents. Its supporters draw parallels with the “Anbar Awakening” in Iraq, where American forces harnessed disaffected Sunni communities, who had grown tired of violence, to root out largely foreign insurgents.

But the Afghan insurgency — and the tribal dynamics that sometimes drive it — is infinitely more complicated. For a start, most of the insurgents are ethnic Pashtuns, the same group as the tribesmen. In many of the worst-hit areas the Taleban and their allies enjoy widespread support from local people; in other areas they are the local people.

Insurgent commanders are often remembered fondly in their home districts as heroes of the anti-Soviet resistance who built schools and mosques. It will be much harder for foreign dollars to split xenophobic villagers from their ancestral leaders. (Read more)