Article

2008-11-21 India-Pakistan

Pakistani government forcing tribes to fight Taliban

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Glenmore 2008-11-21 08:12|| || Front Page|| [7 views ] Top

#1 Seems to me that the "pick a side" approach works when you can offer the tribes greater security than the other side. If you can't, it's likely to hasten your own demise. Where does that leave Pakistan's military?

Posted by Richard of Oregon 2008-11-21 10:15|| 2008-11-21 10:15|| Front Page Top

#2 The Awakenings worked because

...the awakeners [in Iraq] are light years less primitive than the troglodytes in the pak tribal areas.

Posted by M. Murcek">M. Murcek 2008-11-21 11:39|| 2008-11-21 11:39|| Front Page Top

#3 Summary: Afghanistan is not Iraq. The "Awakening" may not occur in Afghanistan as most of the tribes are relatively comfortable having the Taliban and AQ around. Some of our military are thinking "inside the box" since they seem to think the "Awakening" of Iraq is directly applicable to the new situation. I hope Petraeus is not one of them.

Posted by tipover 2008-11-21 11:49|| 2008-11-21 11:49|| Front Page Top

#4 "Pakistan's practice of compelling the tribes is counter to the successful Awakening movement in Iraq which rose up to fight al Qaeda in Anbar province on their own accord," a senior US military officer said. "An "awakening" ultimately has to originate with the people, the tribes. In Pakistan, most of the tribes are ambivalent or supportive to the Taliban, and are hostile to the government."

"Of their own accord"? What planet is this guy on? We paid the Iraqi Sunnis to help us fight al Qaeda. Pakistan doesn't have billions of dollars a year to spend paying the tribes to fight al Qaeda. We went the Mr. Nice Guy route because we had to, for PR reasons, and because we were able to afford it, financially. Most countries go the Pakistani route because they're not made of money, and more importantly, because it has worked for thousands of years, way before the expression "counter-insurgency" became a part of the English language (and indeed, way before there was an English language). Getting friendly border tribes to fight unfriendly border tribes isn't some kind of innovation - it's a time-tested tradition.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2008-11-21 13:13|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2008-11-21 13:13|| Front Page Top

#5 In fact, from the government's standpoint, the main problem with bribing one border tribe to fight another is that the bribed border tribe gets stronger, while your coffers are emptied, and the state gets weaker.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2008-11-21 13:17|| http://timurileng.blogspot.com]">[http://timurileng.blogspot.com] 2008-11-21 13:17|| Front Page Top

#6 Who know what the people in the NWFP think. If this is good intel coming from people who know the 'lay of the land' then I guess it's good. If it's brainstorming from idiots at the pentagon who are trying to duplicate the awakening movement, I think it's screwed....inherently.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2008-11-21 16:55|| 2008-11-21 16:55|| Front Page Top

#7 if the taliban keep attacking the trbes then looks like pakistan shouldn't have too bribe the tribes join or die

Posted by chris 2008-11-21 18:27|| 2008-11-21 18:27|| Front Page Top

23:21 Jeremiah Thaise1218
22:35 AzCat
22:17 OldSpook
22:09 OldSpook
22:03 OldSpook
22:03 Penguin
21:54 Thing From Snowy Mountain
21:51 Thing From Snowy Mountain
21:49 Anonymoose
21:46 Thing From Snowy Mountain
21:40 Procopius2k
21:22 Zhang Fei
21:19 Zhang Fei
20:56 Abu do you love
20:36 Frank G
20:23 Anonymoose
20:15 Spike Uniter
20:14 Scooter McGruder
20:07 ed
20:01 Anonymoose
19:56 chris
19:52 Frank G
19:45 Frank G
19:24 Besoeker