Just to finish off this gruelling series, I wanted to flag Kilcullen’s take on Afghanistan and opium. In short, his argument is that counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics in Afghanistan are identical; the poppy mostly grows where the Taliban are, it provides something up to 50% of the movement’s income, and it is anyway impossible to do…
Read More Accidental Guerrilla, Part 4: Kilcullen on DrugsLaura Rozen reports that the US government is talking about Pakistan’s “existential crisis”. (They do not mean, apparently, brooding about lobsters and smoking too much.) It’s currently being manifested by the Pakistani army fighting its way back into the Malakand Division; basic details here. Fans of Winston Churchill’s My Early Life will of course remember…
Read More support your local marplotTelling. 29 (Commando) Light Regiment RA haul a 105mm gun by hand up a rock pinnacle in Afghanistan, to a feature called Roshan Tower. Yes, Roshan as in the mobile phone operator. We can offer you 900MHz GSM service, and some things that go with it, but far from all of them, or we can…
Read More onwards and upwardsThere is more truth about Afghanistan, counter-insurgency, insurgents and empires in this cartoon than in the vast pile of thinktank and military-academic reports on my local hard disk. (Today’s is pretty good, too.)
Read More Afghanistan the Doonesbury wayThis sounds a lot like sense to me. Richard Holbrooke thinks destroying Afghans’ poppy crop is stupid: “It hasn’t hurt the Taleban one iota,” he said, “because whatever money they’re getting from the drugs trade, they get whatever they need whether we reduce the acreage or not.” The US said last month that poppy cultivation…
Read More Holbrookespeak, you listen!I did a post for AFOE about the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and their successful effort to support their allies there afterwards. With Ivan gone, a significant chunk of the mujahedin movement was willing to make terms with the government, and with significant economic and military aid, the government was able to deal with the…
Read More Sunday Makhmut Gareev BloggingMumbai privilege-escalation attack news. Dawn reports that a Pakistani colonel has been identified in the evidence the Indians have presented – one R. Salahuddin from the “Special Communications Group” (Via Tom “Rickay!” Ricks). However, the evidence of his involvement is an e-mail with that address in the Reply-To field. If you can spoof voice CLI,…
Read More down at Abu Asterisk’s mobile phone shop againThrill! as the counterinsurgents meet dance culture. (Americans – don’t you just want to chuck them under the chin sometimes? When you don’t want to start building rockets like sausages, that is.) Watch with mingled awe and horror as Norwegian anarchist and occasional reader bonds with walking pile of unexamined fascist tropes over awful US…
Read More InternetI’m not sure what Jaap de Hoop Schepper was going on about here, but I’m slightly distressed that people are *still* being all impressed that there are mobile phones in Afghanistan/Iraq; someone even brought this up for John McCain last year. Roshan has been going for what, five years now? And, of course, the kind…
Read More probably better than a snarky blog postSometimes, at the moment, politics feels like an entirely unconscious business; just a matter of the right reflexes. Like B.F. Skinner’s religious pigeons (see also here). Tap the right kneejerk and get a pellet. Hence this exchange in a US military press conference: Q Yes. Do you have any evidence that there are more or…
Read More pigeon religion