Kandahar Province: catch all thread

[davidbfpo]

Steve Coll's column on Kandahar and a certain local politician's future. Note he was accompanying Admiral Mullen on tour.

Link:http://www.newyorker.com/online/blog....html#comments

[davidbfpo]

hat tip to al Sahwa for a short review of the campaign:http://al-sahwa.blogspot.com/2010/04...-kandahar.html

Ends with:

Ultimately, though, there will be no enduring success in Kandahar (or Afghanistan at all) until we're able to establish an effective and legitimate alternative to the Taliban's shadow government.

[Sylvan]

hat tip to al Sahwa for a short review of the campaign:http://al-sahwa.blogspot.com/2010/04...-kandahar.html

Ends with:

AWK doesn't count?

[davidbfpo]

Sylvan,

AWK does feature in the commentary, this is one part:

In essence, real power rests with just two families who have prospered under the presence of American forces in the past eight years. One of them is the family of President Hamid Karzai, who is represented here by his brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, who heads the provincial council. The other belongs to Gul Agha Shirzai, the former governor of Kandahar, and his brothers Bacha Shirzai and Razziq Shirzai, who have gotten lucrative security and construction deals with NATO forces. Residents and elders accuse the families of persecuting rivals and excluding all other tribes from access to power. Their domination has undercut any popular backing for the government or the foreign forces supporting them.

On my read AWK's role does feature.

[Sylvan]

Sylvan,

AWK does feature in the commentary, this is one part:

On my read AWK's role does feature.

I spent 5 months in Kandahar City (not KAF).
Shirzai is the popular leader for most of KC. Karzai's powerbase was to the North. Our fortunes fell when Shirzai was removed as Governor from Kandahar and moved North.
This is not a shared power-broker deal. This was a muscle move to emplant Karzai's younger brother to take over predominance over Kandahar City. While there have been some pay-offs to avoid civil war, Karzai used his control over the Tajik ANA to ensure Shirzai knew his place.

As to my original comment, AWK doesn't count as either a legitimate or effective counter to the Taliban. Shirzai was. And that is, IMHO, why things went to crap in the South.

[davidbfpo]

Thanks for that point. Local legitimacy in Afghanistan is IMHO a very different concept let alone practice when compared to our Western experience. More importantly you've been there and I sit faraway in an armchair watching.

[davidbfpo]

A somewhat different, if provocative article by Greg Mills (a South African commentator on COIN):http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article..._eyes?page=0,0