By Dave Anderson:
Here is what David Kilcullen, of CNAS and COIN advocate/author states the United States needs to see in the very near future for COIN to have a chance in hell of working:
Only a legitimately elected Afghan president can enact reforms, so at the
very least we need to see a genuine run-off election or an emergency
national council, called a loya jirga, before winter. Once a legitimate
president emerges, we need to see immediate action from him on a publicly
announced reform program, developed in consultation with Afghan society and
enforced by international monitors. Reforms should include firing human
rights abusers and drug traffickers, establishing an independent authority
to investigate citizen complaints and requiring officials to live in the
districts they are responsible for (fewer than half do).Other steps might include a census and district-level elections (promised
since 2001, but never held), fair and effective taxation to replace
kickbacks and extortion, increased pay to diligent local officials, the
transfer of more budgetary authority to the provinces and the creation of
local courts for dispute resolution.
Reading heavily in-between the lines, Kilcullen may be saying it is time to throw the vast majority of the local power brokers who have been working in conjunction with or allied to the United States since the fall of 2001 (the corrupt, the human rights abusers and the illegitimate president) overboard and start anew.
Might as well wish that every Afghan child get a pony.....
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