"Go Deep" - another plan for Afghanistan

[jmm99]

to the end, where one finds Figure 9. Insurgent concentrations throughout Afghanistan (nice map). It struck me odd that the Soviet Union is located to Astan's North. So, found the source, history-map.com, where:

Here for your perusal is an original map of Afghanistan major insurgent groups. It was created in 1985.

Brought back memories of armchair viewing of our successful effort to bait the Bear. Watching Astan in the 80s was much more pleasant than watching Astan during the last few years.

I'm not competent to critique the military proposals (basically, a Kabul-Bagram enclave; intel and direct action; and FID, as I understand it).

As to the civilian side of the ledger, I read some statements expressing future hopes, but little of substance. The LTC got this right (p.13):

The last time there was effective governance in Afghanistan was the rule of King Zahir Shah who ruled from 1933 until deposed in a coup in 1973. During that 40 years the country was loosely ruled from Kabul, but the issues of day-to-day governance were primarily handled by the local tribes and regions. But given the geographical realities of the country and the near absence of a modern communications or transportation system, this arrangement worked very well.

According to one Afghan citizen I spoke to who lived there during the reign of Zahir Shah, there was a strong sense of peace and security. “We didn’t even have to worry about locking our doors at night,” he told me. But after the King was deposed in the near-bloodless coup in 1973 that brought Daoud Khan to power things began to change.

What he doesn't tell us with any substance is how to change STP's elephant back into the Zahir Shah mouse - credits to Dave Kilcullen for the elephant to mouse story.

Which is saying I pretty much agree with STP. Not to say that whatever comes out of the Obama administration huddle will be any better on the civilian effort. The major media attention has been to the 20K, 40K, 80K troop options.

What would you be doing right now if you were one of the two dozen or so "Northern Alliance" warlords ?