Karzai himself took power through the employment of such forces, empowered by an outside source; so it is natural that he would be leery of the formation of the same now. A big portion of our difficulty in selling this program is that we have not effectively recognized that he will wisely fear that such a powerful tool could be used against him as well (he is not a foolish man).

Another aspect of our inability to sell this program is the insistence on focusing on the security / security force aspect of a program that is arguably 80% about extending the official governance of Afghanistan beyond the safe confines of the District and Provincial Centers out to newly empowered and protected local centers of Legitimacy among critical populaces in a few select, critical locations and fusing the two together.

Jimmy Gant's paper fired the imagination in similar ways to Lawrence’s "Seven Pillars"; but similarly the real story is lost in the excitement and romanticism.

There will be no great uprising of tribal forces( trained, enabled and led by a handful of Green Berets; or otherwise) sweeping across Afghanistan to remove the Taliban under this program.

It is no more, and no less than forming local militias to establish local security in order to allow the extension of formal governance to the people to draw upon their legitimacy; and to allow and empower the functioning of local governance as well. Empowering the local shura to bring in development projects and governance on their terms to address issues they see as important for their communities. It is a building of Hope. It is a recognition of Respect for historic systems. It is a transference of Legitimacy from the people to their government. It is NOT program to build private armies to wage COIN in parallel to GIROA.

We won't be able to sell this program until we ourselves understand what it really is that we are trying to sell.