Sarah Chayes on Afghanistan
I've always enjoyed Sarah's interviews and pieces on Afghanistan. I don't always agree with her, but she provides valuable insight from someone that isn't military who walks the walk. She was interviewed on NPR yesterday. Her thoughts reminded me a lot of Dave Kilcullen's comments in the New Yorker as well as CNN (part 1 video and part 2 video). All are worth reading/listening/watching.
Sarah Chayes Action Plan for Afghanistan
"The United States should redefine its objectives in favor of the Afghan
people, not the Afghan government. In a counter-insurgency, the people
are the proverbial prize. It is only by supporting the Afghan people – not
abusive powerbrokers – in their effort to reconstitute their social,
economic, institutional, and cultural fabric, that stability in Afghanistan can
be achieved, and the country be durably denied as a sanctuary for
terrorists."
This a very interesting paper. Tom Ricks spoke very highly of it on his blog and I was most impressed with it.
One small thing mentioned in the piece that I didn't know is that Afghan farmers can make more growing fruit than they can from opium.
Here is the address:
http://www.sarahchayes.net/images/Af..._plan_0109.pdf
I am very interested to see what others think.
A study in contrasts ....
An overriding theme of Ms. Chayes' article is her focus on the "Afghan People"; and some disparagement of those approaching Astan as a multi-tribal culture - albeit, my impression of what she wrote.
I just finished reading a study of the Taliban, which also studies the Pashtuns, and which was posted by Cavguy some months ago in another thread in this forum. I was struck by the tribal and sub-tribal nature of the Pashtuns (see Fig. 3, p.6 in the CAC article) - which is only one of the many large groups in Astan.
I wonder how many of Ms. Chayes' "Afghan People" think of themselves primarily as that - or, e.g., as Popalzai (one of the sub-tribes near her residence).
Ms. Chayes is clearly committed to a centralized government approach in Astan to solve its problems - thus, the need to emphasize the "Afghan People" concept, as opposed to a small community approach, which would look more to the local tribes and sub-tribes.
This all reminds me of the Hillary Rodham (before she became Clinton) argument against the traditional Saul Alinsky approach (organize small communities of people from the grassroots up).
Ms Rodham (in her senior undergrad thesis) argued that approach was too slow - and that large central government programs were the better way to reach the same end. Where a strong central government exists (as in the US), Ms Rodham's approach is feasible - whether desirable is another question.
Note that the dichotomy is not population-centric vs non-population centric. Both Ms Rodham's approach (much like Ms Chayes') and the traditional Alinsky approach look very much to the population as the key to success. The Rodham-Chayes approach is top down; the Alinsky approach is bottom up. These are two very different ways of looking at practical political action.
Solar power is very cheap and even portable
Quote:
Originally Posted by
120mm
Two questions come to mind vis-a-vis this piece. First is her fixation with solar power. Who manufactures these solar power plants, but most of all, who maintains them? What if they're not financially viable? I would guess like all the other "alternative energy" crap, they operate at a huge energy deficit, i.e, they are much less efficient than other, more conventional means of energy production.
Second, how does the poppy farmer switch crops, when the warlord/druglord makes him and his family dead?
Solar power is very economical and avoids power lines, grids, and hydro plants that are in inadequate suppy throughout Afghanistan.
You can power a car, a cell phone, a lap top computer, whatever, with a small directly hooked up solar powered batter pack/system, as but one example.
http://www.solarhome.org/
If you can't get into the Early Bird version....
...of the Wall Street Journal piece, click here for access to the version on the paper's web page.