George L. Singleton says:
The tribal and jiirga traditions are as feudal and unrelated to Western style democracy as an day is to night.
That's funny, because I've attended local Shuras, and there seemed to be some recognizable form of debate and collective decision-making based on representative agreement. I've attended a village level Shura in order to review local projects and the selection of new projects. I've spoken to villagers about the elder representation system. It was conveyed to me that the elders are not elected but can lose acceptance as representatives based on poor leadership, ideas, or influence. When you discuss shifting historical alliances as if they were the representative local politics that I observed, you would certainly come up with a different conclusion.
Since 9/11 almost daily dialogue with Afghans, together with good friends at pretty senior levels there, in the field, do not support you view.
I see. The pretty senior level people I saw spent very little time at the village level. They showed up, they met with a Wuliswahl or attended a district Shura, or they attended a Provincial Security Council meeting and they left. O-6 level visits were extremely rare and O-7 and above a white elephant. The higher the "pretty senior level," the farther from the ground reality.
However, you can use your new math ideology and allow me to depend on factual history and we are each entitled to construe different viewpoints respectfully and maybe even humorously for that matter.
Condescension will get you nearly as far as flattery with me, Sir, and does not appear to be respectful. My "new math ideology" is based on my experience on the ground in Afghanistan, which I will take over all of your course work and long distance conversations with Durrani leftovers any day of the week. I would submit, Sir, that I am in possession of more "facts" than you are in this case. Your attempt to snow me over with your historical credentials and "good friends at pretty senior levels" leaves me singularly unimpressed, and your attempt to brush me off with the equivalent of "you don't know what you are talking about, Sonny," leaves a faintly fecal scent, Sir. You are welcome to view that as humor.
I do not wish to waive the "Been There, Done That" T-shirt too boldly, but I have spent a considerable amount of time in Afghan villages at the local level speaking with local inhabitants who experience local politics on a daily basis. I subscribe to the school of "all politics is local." You may quote history as you like, but I've still got Afghan dust in some of my gear, Sir. This is not the rotor-washed dust of Bagram but the dust of Tag Ab, Chapahar, Kalagush, and Alingar.
I was not a ghost-chasing counter-guerrilla, Sir. I was an embedded advisor. I sometimes lived for weeks at a time "outside the wire."
Again, the concept of locally elected/selected representatives to decision-making assemblies is not a foreign idea to Afghans. The idea of an elected central government is a very new idea to them, but is not completely incomprehensible to Afghans. They struggle with the concept of a national identity, but the ANA is a very good example of the fact that Afghans can get past tribalism and work together. Local loyalty often transcends tribal loyalty, and village politics has some vaguely democratic elements. Different from Western democracy? Yes. "Night and day?" No, Sir.
There are a group of people who tend too far into social anthropology and get lost in the weeds. You would be surprised at the awareness that a lot of these backwoods villagers have of the basic concepts. It is in fact an issue in the districts that the district and provincial councils have only an advisory role and that the district and provincial governors are appointed and serve at the leisure of the president. These villagers would like to see these local executives become elected and therefore accountable to the local population. This would actually tie the traditional lines of power at the local level to the GIRoA.
This is an Afghan solution.
Over-analyzing the social anthropology of Afghanistan makes assumptions that are frequently in error visa vis the reality on the ground and is a distraction from the real point of this discussion, which is that our Soldiers are failed by training and leadership in their ability to be the "strategic Corporals" of COIN. Declaring the task too difficult, or even irrelevant, with pronouncements that Afghans are clueless as to any practices resembling democratic principles is diversionary. Further, it is incongruous with my personal observations at the local level.
Those are my "new math ideology" personal observations, Sir.
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