The Next Problem With The Afghan Police - Tribal Loyalty

By Steve Hynd

It's almost an article of faith among the COIndinista set right now that the answer in Afghanistan is "tribal". Tribal militias, Tribal Jirgas, deals with smuggling tribes to fight their smuggling rivals the Taliban. Many analysts who know the country and the people have been sceptical of that approach, saying labelling an answer "tribal" isn't a magical panacea.

And, according to one decorated British army captain who has mentored Afghan police, even if the Western allies get all the recruitment and desertion and training bugs sorted out (a big if), keeping the Afghan police tribal in nature is a recipe for disaster.

Beattie said he worked as a mentor with the police in 2006. "I am really disappointed with the plan for policing in Afghanistan. The problem with the police in Afghanistan, particularly in Helmand, is that they are drawn from their own communities.

"So you have, say, a Pashtun Alizai tribesman who is recruited into the police and trained by the likes of us who then ends up serving in the Alizai area of Helmand. If that officer is now manning a checkpoint and Alizai aligned to the Taliban who have known him all his life come up to him, what is he going to do?

"It's more than likely that officer is going to let that particular Taliban through the checkpoint with their guns and their explosive devices. That officer will be more loyal to his tribe in his own tribal area than his police force or indeed the government."

The Royal Irish Regiment officer drew an analogy with Northern Ireland. "This would be like taking a police recruit from Crossmaglen in south Armagh, then getting him to patrol in Crossmaglen. Imagine all the local pressures he would be under from republican dissidents he might have gone to school with, or who knew where he or his parents lived. That is taking place in Afghanistan, and we, the west, are facilitating it.

"The failure of policing in Afghanistan is a critical reason why the Taliban are scoring so many successes, why they are getting more support. The people like the Afghan army in Helmand, yet the army don't come from Helmand, but from other parts of the country. Yet the people don't trust the police � the relationship with them is truly horrendous." Plans to raise the Afghan police to more than 130,000 would not work unless the recruits were vetted and not deployed in their own tribal regions, he added.

My bet: Captain Beattie's insight will be labelled "not invented here". And when the Afghan police are still blowing up in everyone's faces half a decade from now the COIN set will be scratching their heads or reinventing the wheel.