I'm not sure ordinary Afghans are likely to find it all that convincing, especially in a context where many of the most powerful real gangsters are on the government/coalition side (AWK, anyone?)Originally Posted by slapout9
I'm not sure ordinary Afghans are likely to find it all that convincing, especially in a context where many of the most powerful real gangsters are on the government/coalition side (AWK, anyone?)
They mostly come at night. Mostly.
- university webpage: McGill University
- conflict simulations webpage: PaxSims
I was wondering if John P. Sullivan had anything to do with this? I like the cross-talk between police/military.
What Rex said ....
where the locals select the Taliban courts (despite their drawbacks) in preference to the national courts.
Since we don't have a gendarmerie, the rest of the program looks like a "good start". Of course, IIRC, a "good start" is 1000 lawyers in chains at the bottom of the sea.
Cheers
Mike
I'm torn on this one: part of me wants to argue that street gangs have been fighting a small, dirty, limited war against the government and the police for years; but as soon as I say that, there's a part of me that's gonna want to point out that the government and the police have been losing that war.
If you're interested, we've compared and contrasted the nature of gangs and insurgencies in various threads. This one is about the issues in NorCal.
John P. Sullivan has also written extensively in SWJ on the issues in LA and future threats.
This is some really interesting stuff and in my opinion, should have happened a while ago. Not only are we possibly causing the Taliban to appear as criminals (which may or may not be good as Rex mentioned), but we are strengthening the enforcement of the law. Having guys trained take down gangs with the proper law enforcement techniques is better than sending in heavily armed guys that start a firefight for obvious reasons. Ideal results: Less "gangs" through action that doesn't completely disturb and annoy the population.
It would even be better if we could try to pass this law enforcement training to the Afghan National Police. Yes the ANP have alot of issues to work out, but we are mainly providing them with paramilitary training right now. If they learn how to do "proper" law enforcement (methods of handling evidence, undercover agents, CSI, etc), then in the long term, I think they would be more efficient and the situation would be better. An interesting article discussing this was published by FP a couple of weeks ago.
This is a good step, especially when thinking long term. We will see how it works out.
I will make sure to check out John Sullivan's work.
not universally transferable but
This is exactly how you attack the counter message. They are "fakers" of Islam. They are not heroes they are punks. Battles for legitimate rules of neighborhoods happen everyday. Insurgencies can be gangs/organized crime on empowered to the level of direct action against it rivals or legitimate government. The other way to combat them would be through a rival gang. Crips vs blood then their resources are expended at that level instead of government actors. Gang A kills Gang B and you put Gang B in prison two for the price of one.
If you enforce the law without favoring any side but the Law itself you will gain the respect of the people.....may take awhile but if you are really fair, I think they will come around.
This topic has actually come up at a few NA security conferences I've attended, with fun sidebars like how Iran is underwriting Columbia's cocaine industry. Thanks for the link, I'm reading.
Ian
More Links
Sullivan's writings can be found here. My favorite is his last with Adam Elkus, an up and coming defense analyst. Adam has his own blog on strategy and security issues here.
IRT Taliban/AQ as criminals, I still tend towards the thoughts of some of my Pak Army brothers that I got to spend some time with in Monterey.
Mike, they are nothing more than miscreants. Your stupid GWOT gives them credence and credibility of which they do not deserve.
Last edited by davidbfpo; 07-14-2010 at 09:09 AM. Reason: Place last sentence in quote marks
The Police just like the military can enforce the Law and enforce the Peace but only the Government can win it. The Police always win the battles unless our budget gets cut. What happens is the Government never addresses the underlying causes of the problem, it is easier just to call 911.
Update
A recent article by FP discussing this was published. May be of interest to SWC. LINK
There is often one critical element that is overlooked in these constant engagement programs. In America we(police) can constantly engage the community because we all speak the same language
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