As all military theorists know, Sun Tzu said "So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself. "
Without lecturing, I thought it might interest you to know a little more about the Taliban. So here goes. Taliban 101.
Taliban means "student" in Arabic. Referring of course to the Quaran. Ish. The Taliban's extremely strict and anti-modern ideology has been described as an "innovative form of sharia combining Pashtun tribal codes," or Pashtunwali. Hmmm. Innovative. That's one word for it. Pashtunwali is a very honourable amd worthy code (I have included the basic tenets at the bottom of this email). If we all lived by this code (ish), the world would indeed be a better place. The problem is, it has been corrupted and misinterpreted. Also contributing to the mix is the jihadism and pan-Islamism of Osama bin Laden (never a good thing). Under the Taliban regime, Sharia law was interpreted to forbid a wide variety of previously lawful activities in Afghanistan . One Taliban list of prohibitions included: pork, pig, pig oil, anything made from human hair, satellite dishes, cinematography, and equipment "that produces the joy of music", pool tables, chess, masks, alcohol, tapes, computers, VCRs, television, anything that propagates sex and is full of music, wine, lobster, nail polish, firecrackers, statues, sewing catalogs, pictures and Christmas cards. They also got rid of employment, education, and sports for all women. They banned dancing, clapping during sports events, kite flying, and characterizations of living things, no matter if they were drawings, paintings, photographs, stuffed animals, or dolls. Men had to have a fist size beard at the bottom of their chin, conversely, they had to wear their head hair short - and the police checked. Public executions, whippings and beatings were commonplace. Nice bunch.
The Taliban are the baddies. Not all the baddies. There are others, but they sort of fall under that headline Taliban. Broadly speaking we (military) categorise them into three types.
On the extreme right we have the ideological group. Their goal is an Islamic fundamentalist state governed by strict interpretations of Sharia law. These are what we call the irreconcilables. It is unlikely that this group of Taliban will ever allow freedom of religion, expression, women or speech. Let alone anything else. Led by Mullah Mohammed Omar (who is believed to be in Pakistan ), funded by the drug trade, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia (to name a few) and supported by Iran and Pakistan . These are bad guys. Really bad guys. The primary mission of the task forces I work with is to kill or capture these people. They are targetted, tracked, monitored and eliminated. Seriously. Using guided missiles, snipers, night raids and high risk arrests we aim to remove these people from the battlespace. And we do. Very successfully. Daily.
At the other end we have the so called "ten dollar Taliban" or even the "two dollar taliban". These are farmers, migrants, unemployed or bored individuals who pick up an AK47 and have a go. They fight because the poppy harvest is over, because they need to provide food for their family, because the local Taliban leader coerces and threatens them or just because they like to fight. (It's like that over here!). The NATO solution here is to invest. Heavily. We are (mostly the US ) spending billions, and I mean billions. Organisations here provide advice to farmers to improve crop yields, we provide crops as an alternative to poppies including pomegranites, date/fig trees and others. We build roads and schools and hospitals, we build power plants, hydroelectric dams, bridges and infrastructure. Cash for work programmes offer alternative employment for useful work such as road building, ditch digging and irrigation projects. The Taliban leadership however respond by cutting off the noses and ears of workers who participate in these programmes, blowing up the infrastructure, targeting schools and schoolchildren and attacking construction sites. Our conventional soldiers therefore respond by patrolling, protecting and reassuring. By putting themselves in danger every day, they show the population that they can have a safe environment in which to live and work. By providing security we can allow these individuals an alternative to fighting and thus remove them from the battlespace. By training huge numbers of police and Afghan army we hope they can provide themselves with long term stability and security without the need for us to stay here.
In the middle we have the rest. The solution here is simple. We tip them one way or the other. They either participate in society in some way - and we have formal reintegration processes to allow fighters to return to society - or we kill them/drive them away. We aim to polarise everybody and once they have made their intention clear we deal with them in an appropriate manner.
It sounds pretty simple, and it actually is. It also sounds pretty brutal, and again, it probably is. It might even work. There are problems though. We can't operate in Iran and we can't operate (much) in Pakistan . So the insurgents, especially the senior insurgents, just hop over the border, where they sit, issuing orders and proclamations.. Hmmm. What to do about that? The Madrassahs in Pakistan turn out hundreds of indoctrinated suicide bombers every year. Young men who have been brainwashed and drugged enough to believe that it is glorious to blow yourself up in crowded streets or school playgrounds. The Taliban also hate foreigners. Outsiders in their country. Us. They try and kill us as frequently and as spectacularly as possible. They love what we call complex attacks - A few days ago one of our bases was attacked. A suicide bomber drove a vehicle to the gate and exploded himself. At the same time the guard towers were attacked with rocket propelled grenades and small arms fire. As the police and soldiers at the gate were dealing with the incident, and the guard towers were occupied, four men wearing suicide vests ran through the entrance to try and enter the compound and kill as many coalition forces as they could. Simultaneously an Aghan police ambulance arrived at the gate. In the confusion, the guards were about to let the ambulance in when that too exploded as the four suicide bombers in the back had detonated prematurely.
These are problems that can't be solved with money and these are problems that are made worse by killing, as that just produces more fuel for the militant propaganda machine to recruit more bombers, and more support from fringe states for their "oppressed brethren". If anyone knows what we can do about that I would be glad to hear it...
Pashtunwali.
Melmastia (hospitality) - Showing hospitality and profound respect to all visitors, regardless of distinctions of race, religion, national affiliation as well as economic status and doing so without any hope of remuneration or favour. Pashtuns are considered to be the most hospitable people in the world. A Pashtun may go to great lengths to show his hospitality.
Nanawatai (asylum) - Derived from the verb meaning to go in, this is used for protection given to a person who requests protection against his/her enemies. The people are protected at all costs, in many cases even people running from the law must be given refuge until the situation is clarified. It can also be used when the vanquished party is prepared to go in to the house of the victors and ask for their forgiveness. (Its a peculiar form of chivalrous surrender, in which an enemy seeks "sanctuary" at his enemy's house).
Badal (justice) - To seek justice or take revenge against the wrongdoer. This applies to injustices committed yesterday or 1000 years ago if the wrongdoer still exists. Justice in Pashtun lore needs elaborating: even a mere taunt (or "Paighor") is regarded as an insult - often, shedding the taunter's blood is the only acceptable redress (and if he isn't available, then his next closest male relation). This in turn may lead to a blood feud that can last generations and involve whole tribes with the loss of hundreds of lives. Probably not
Tureh (bravery) - A Pashtun must defend his land/property, family and women from incursions wherever he or she might reside. A Pashtun should always stand brave against tyranny and he should always be able to defend his property, family, women and the honour of his name; killing the offending party is an acceptable recourse for an attack on any of these.
Sabat (loyalty) - Loyalty must be paid to one's family, friends, and tribe members. Disloyalty is extremely shameful in Pashtun culture, and a Pashtun's family, friends, and tribe members are also shamed if one is disloyal.
Imandari (righteousness) - A Pashtun must always strive towards thinking good thoughts, speaking good words and doing other good deeds. Pashtuns must behave respectfully towards all creations including people, animals and the environment around them. Pollution of the environment or its destruction is against the Pashtunwali.[
Isteqamat - Trust in Allah. The notion of trusting in the one Creator generally comports to the belief in only one God (tawheed).
Ghayrat (self honour or dignity) - Pashtuns must maintain their human dignity. Honour has great importance in Pashtun society and most other codes of life are aimed towards the preservation of one's honour or pride. They must respect themselves and others in order to be able to do so, especially those they do not know. Respect begins at home, among family members and relatives.
Namus (Honor of women) - A Pashtun must defend the honor of Pashtun women at all costs and must protect them from verbal and physical harm.
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