I throw this out as an open question – how do you win the support of the rural people of Afghanistan?

I spent OEF6 building as a company commander building roads in rural Afghanistan both in Oruzgan Province working from Tarin Khot south to Tanacheuy and in Paktia Province from Khost to the Pakistan border. In both places I had the opportunity to work with local town leaders. Three things were clear. First, just surviving is a pretty arduous task. This was unforgiving country and town leaders were more interested in day-to-day survival matters than anything else. Second, the central government had no influence. This was because no one had ever seen anyone from the central government. Depending on where they were the locals may see ANA troops once a month but beyond that nothing. Even when I was in locations where the coalition had built district offices the only thing there was a building and some furniture. There would be some ANA to protect it but they did not even have the fuel to run their generators. They could offer little to the population in the form of support. Third, we were outsiders. We were not, nor were we ever to be, their brothers. Our world and theirs was significantly different and we were never there long enough (i.e more than one year) to build a relationship.

The one thing I did notice in both places was a pride in being Afghani. That pride included their common history of expelling invaders.

At this point in the struggle it seems that the coalition needs to convince these fence-sitters to take a side and support the central government. Ultimately this is their fight for their country; we just have a national security interest in who wins.

Thoughts?