Intentions

• We don’t have to beat ISAF militarily, just outlast international will to remain in Afghanistan
• Continue population outreach and protection programs
• Continue successful asymmetric operations
• Expand lethal IED and high-profile attacks to deny ISAF freedom of movement
• Emphasize increasing violence in RC North and RC West
• Demonstrate Taliban reach and perceived control of all Afghanistan
• Make the main enemy the United States

Directives
• Reiterated prohibitions on the following:
– Mistreatingpopulation
– Forciblytakingpersonal weapons
– Takingchildrentoconduct jihad
– Punishmentbymaiming
– Forcing people to pay donations
– Searchinghomes – Kidnapping people for money

TALIBAN GOVERNANCE

FATA – NWFP of Pakistan

FATA: Taliban Safe Haven

• Made up of seven tribal agencies (Khyber, Kurram, Orazkai, Mohmand, Bajaur, North and South Waziristan)
• 3 million tribesmen of FATA are part of the 28 million Pashtuns in Pakistan (15 million Pashtuns in Afghanistan)
• Development, literacy, and health facilities are low
– Per capita income US $500 – Literacy rate: 17% (3% for females) – Madaris (some built with Al Qaeda money) are a
primary means of education and remain popular
• Tribes on both sides of border intermarry, trade, feud, celebrate with one another; adhere to Pashtunwali
• FATA tribes more rigid and conservative due to a uniquely oppressive administrative system

– Ruled directly by the Pakistani President whose agent is the Governor of the Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP)
– Governor appoints “political agents” to each agency – Agents adhere to the “Frontier Crimes Regulation” (FCR), a legacy of
British colonialism
– FCR gave no constitutional, civic, or political rights to FATA tribesmen
– FATA traditionally off limits to journalists, NGOs, human rights organizations and political parties
– Mullahs and de facto religious parties have filled the void
• Since the fall of the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan, the area has been destabilized as Pakistani Intelligence (ISI) used FATA as a safe haven for Taliban reconstitution and later as a staging area for TB recruitment, training and operations in Afghanistan
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U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe has gained the support of an Army general and a highly-respected senator in her call for a federal review of Afghan security forces in the wake of the ambush killings of a Maine man and five other soldiers on Nov. 29.

Now if you ask one or two people that were with me in Afghanistan that were “in love” with the Afghan forces then they will tell you this is not an issue and they feel and always felt very safe with their Afghan forces. Even after these same forces almost killed them a time or two (by accident of course ). However as I told my team many times and I have repeated on here, you must befriend these guys but becuase they are not Ameicans you have to be ready to kill them without hesitation the second they turn against you. 

They are not all bad and even those that turn against US forces are not all US haters or hidden members of the Taliban. Sometimes the enemy kidnaps their family members and either tortures or threaten to kill the loved ones of the Afghan security member if that soldier/cop does not do somethign like try to kill Ameicans. So I am not sure how anyone thinks they can “screen” for bad guys. It is a tribal and corrupt society, so getting around background checks is very easy. It is all in who you know….or pay. 

 
“However, the fact that attacks by security forces on U.S. and NATO personnel have continued to occur lead me to believe that current practices are inadequate, and significant changes are necessary to prevent the further loss of life in such incidents,” Snowe said.

it is a catch-22 and I am not sure there is any good way around it, other than making sure our troops are always ever-vigilant and never let their guard down or get complacent.  Read the whole story at www.military.com/news/article/general-senator-back-afghan-forces-review.html

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International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Missions

ISAF PRT LOCATIONS

Provincial Reconstruction Team
• 26 PRTs, each commanded by a military officer (usually a LTC)
• Includes: -Military Component (Civil
Affairs/Force Protection)
-Civilian Police Advisors
-Civilianrepresentativesof US (or other national) government foreign agencies

Focus is on development, reconstruction and extending the reach of the central government into the provinces.

AFGHAN NATIONAL ARMY

Afghan National Army (ANA)
• Strength: 97,000 troops (as of January 2010)
• Target Strength: 240,000 (within five years)
• Capacity: participates in 90% of ISAF operations and leads 62% of joint operations
• Well respected by the Afghan population

ANA Command Areas of Responsibility

AFGHAN NATIONAL POLICE

Afghan National Police (ANP)
• Strength: 94,000 (as of January 2010)
• Target Strength: 134,000 (within five years)
• Composition of the ANP
- Afghan Uniformed Police
- Afghan Border Police
- Afghan National Civil Order Police
- Afghan Counter-Narcotics Police
• Viewed as corrupt; are known to extort the local population; generally not trusted

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Without giving away too much of the whitepaper I can tell you that it is a fresh “outside of the box” look into a path forward for success in Afghanistan. I first read this white paper over a year ago and since then Scott and I have had many discussions about it, what it means, what it would take to open minds to implement it, etc. I will be honest it changed my mind on a few things on the way to approach engaging the populous in Afghanistan and making them more accountable and responsible for themselves.

I encourage you to head over to the Small Wars Journal and check out smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2010/09/three-wickets-and-a-bulldozer/

Read the small entry there and then head to Three Wickets and A Bulldozer and download it.

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ISLAM

• Abrahamic religion-shares roots with Judaism and Christianity
• Qur’an holy book – infallible authority
• Five Pillars: Testimony of faith (Shahada), Prayer (Salat), Charity (Zakat), Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj), Fasting during month of Ramadan (Sawm)
• Other Beliefs: Faith (Iman), Oneness of God (Tawhid), Prophets, Angels, Judgment Day, the Books (Qur’an, Bible, Torah), Fate and Predestination
• Division between Sunni and Shi’a not as important as ethnic/tribal differences
• Pervasive part of daily life – Prayer 5x/day, education, Friday mosque
gatherings
• Religious figures (mullahs) respected and influential
-The Mullah is a religious leader or teacher
-Most are qualified by their ability to quote the Koran from memory
-Often times the Mullah retains the role of a leader who arbitrates local disputes based of Islamic principles, and teaches Islamic law and doctrine
• Literacy issues: misinterpretation; opportunity for perceived religious authorities to mislead those who cannot read

DISTRIBUTION OF SHI’A AND SUNNI

ETHNOLINGUISTIC GROUPS AND ISLAMIC SECTS

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Note: The week prior to Eid al-Fitr is an appropriate time to provide performance or other types of bonuses to Afghan national employees such as interpreters/translators; dates for religious holidays are approximated; each year the holidays are adjusted to the lunar calendar

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Families that elected not to send their children to school often did so out of a need for extra hands to maintain the household and field duties. Dari is the language of the educated in Afghanistan. Regardless of their ethnicity, if a family could pool the resources to send their children through an extensive education, they would become fluent in the Dari language. But after the Soviet withdrawal, any semblance of public education disappeared. Even Kabul University closed its doors. The Taliban had a very different approach to education. Outside of religious education for boys only, public education was forbidden, especially for girls. The result of the last three decades is a literacy rate less than 40%. Most of the literate were concentrated in urban areas, while rural locations accounted for less than 10% of the literate.

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Social Statistics
Population:
28.396 Million (2009 est.)

0-14 years: 44.5%
(male 7,664,670/female 7,300,446)

15-64 years: 53%
(male 9,147,846/female 8,679,800)

65 years and over: 2.4%
(male 394,572/female 422,603) (2009 est.)

Total Fertility Rate:
6.53 children born/woman

Under-5 Mortality:
(m/f) 232/237 per 1000

Life Expectancy at Birth:
Total population: 44.64 yrs
Male: 44.47 yrs
Female: 44.81 yrs (2009 est.)

Literacy:
Age 15 and over can read and write
total pop.: 28.1%
male: 43.1%
female: 12.6% (2000 est.)

School life expectancy:
total: 8 years male
11 years female
4 years (2004)

Percentage of population using improved drinking-water sources, 2006, total: 20%

GDP per capita: $700 (2008 est.)

Labor force: 15 million (2004 est.)

Unemployment Rate: 40%

Urban Population: 24% of total population

Economy Overview

• Wheat and cereal production along with fruit and nuts have long been Afghanistan’s traditional agricultural mainstays

• Afghanistan is extremely poor, landlocked, and very dependent on foreign aid • There is a shortage of housing, clean water, electricity, medical care, and jobs • Other challenges include corruption and a huge illicit opium trade • Agriculture: 80%, Industry: 10%, Services: 10% (2004 est.)
• Afghanistan has a wealth of natural resources to include: natural gas, petroleum, oil, marble, gold, copper, chromate, talc, barites, sulfur, lead, zinc, iron ore, and salt
• Exploration indicates abundant deposits of precious and semi precious gemstones, including emerald, ruby, sapphire, garnet, lapis, kunzite, spinel, tourmaline, and peridot; most mining and exportation of these precious and semi precious gems is illegal
• Illegal and unregulated deforestation has depleted much of the country’s timber industry and has left much of the once forested areas barren
• Afghan hand woven rugs are one of the more popular exports along with leather, furs, and hand crafted replica antiques
• Overall the economy of Afghanistan has improved significantly since 2002 due to the infusion of billions of US dollars and international aid
• Exchange rate: 1 $US = 50 Afghanis (AFs)
• Afghanistan’s economy remains weak as economic production is insufficient to generate sufficient personal incomes, to sustain an effective public sector or to finance its wide-ranging imports of finished goods and services.
• In addition to the continuing problems of security, low employment, poor labor productivity, a lack of capital and poor capital productivity, a lack of a comprehensive set of policies to encourage entrepreneurship make the situation very discouraging.
• The Afghan economy has historically remained mostly agricultural in spite of the fact the country is only 12% arable and less than 6% is cultivated; there is almost no use of modern farming techniques to include: the use of farm equipment, chemical fertilizer, or pesticides; irrigation is primitive and totally dependent on the winter snows and seasonal rainfall; fruit and nuts exports average around $115 million a year but could easily be ten times that amount with a little investment.
• Although security has been a major hindrance to Afghanistan’s economic progress, the ability of the Afghan government to extend its reach throughout the country poses the biggest threat to future economic growth; illicit opium production and trade generates roughly 3 billion dollars a year and remains one of Kabul’s largest policy concerns.

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Well this Tuesday, PBS is airing a “in your face” video titled “The Dancing Boys of Afghanistan”. It is about the Bacha Bazi or “boy play” that is so popular in Afghanistan. I have told many people in the US that they will never even get close to understanding the culture of Afghanistan and this is one of many reasons why I say that.

It is not for us to judge, but to become educated. Personally I think this is a sick practice, but it is their culture….right, wrong or indifferent. If you want to learn a little more about Afghanistan and its culture, then I advise you to check this show out on Tuesday the 20th of April on your local PBS station at 9:00 PM. You can learn more about it at www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/dancingboys/

A trailer from the show:

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