Can tribes take on the Taleban?

[Cannoneer No. 4]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...an-777671.html

Britain planned to build a Taliban training camp for 2,000 fighters in southern Afghanistan, as part of a top-secret deal to make them swap sides,

An Afghan government source said the training camp was part of a British plan to use bands of reconciled Taliban, called Community Defence Volunteers, to fight the remaining insurgents. "The camp would provide military training for 1,800 ordinary Taliban fighters and 200 low-level commanders," he said.

But the Afghans feared the British were training a militia with no loyalty to the central government.

IW doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.

BBC, 26 December 2007

Speaking to the British parliament on 12 December, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that Britain advocated a shift in strategy that would favour "hard-headed realism" and work "with the grain of Afghan tradition".

"One way forward is to increase our support for community defence initiatives, where local volunteers are recruited to defend homes and families modelled on traditional Afghan 'arbakai'," he said.

US general rejects UK militia plans Jan 15, 2008

ANALYSIS-Rifts widen on U.S.-British Afghanistan tactics Jan 16, 2008

Afghanistan's tribal complexity Jan 31st 2008

Sensitivity to Afghanistan's tribal complexity has become all the rage. The American army has deployed anthropologists to help its troops understand the shifting mosaic of tribal interest groups. In Parliament in December, Britain's prime minister, Gordon Brown, lapsed into Pushto when he talked about beefing up “traditional Afghan arbakai” (ie, tribal policing arrangements); he said Britain needed to “understand the tribal dynamics”.

Afghans claims UK planned to train ex-Taliban

Doesn't sound like any "Helmand Awakening" is welcome in Kabul. Sin loi, chieu hoi.