July 26, 2008 by Rudolph Ryser.

Six months before the “American Surge” in Iraq…that escalation of troops in Baghdad that many credit for reducing violence in Iraq…Sunni tribal forces became the real reason for removing groups sympathetic to al Qaeda gangs from Anbar Province. There is a lesson here for defeating al Qaeda: support the local indigenous leaders to stabilize and strengthen their communities by defending themselves against al Qaeda gangs.

The United States and her allied countries would do well to recognize that they should make an alliance with indigenous nations…Pashtun communities where the Taliban and al Qaeda hide…and provide them financial, infrastructure and military support. They will clean out the cancer of al Qaeda.

This has all along been an essential truth. Indigenous nations will no longer provide a haven for al Qaeda or similar gangs if states’ governments like the United States, France, Germany and Britain take the deliberate step of recognizing the strategic role indigenous nations play in the present struggle. The “Anbar Solution” is more significant than most states’ government military and foreign policy leaders currently recognize. For a few pieces of silver, Pastu inside Afghanistan and Pakistan will become allies. It is an approach that has already demonstrated great success—more valuable than the “surge.”

(c) 2008 Center for World Indigenous Studies

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July 26, 2008 by Rudolph Ryser.

The American Democratic Party presidential nominee Barak Obama urges increasing US troop deployments in Afghanistan by two or three divisions. US Pentagon officials also suggest such an escalation. Such an increased commitment will be a serious mistake. Just as the US occupation in Iraq is primarily a political problem and not a military problem, so is the instability and violence in Afghanistan a political problem and not a military problem. If the US increases its forces, it will find itself in precisely the same situation the Russians found themselves in during Russia’s ten year Afghanistan intervention.

The political solution must rest on carrying out a sophisticated plan to break-up the failed state of Afghanistan, distribute its parts into the existing states of Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan and a new state of Pashtunistan. Cooperation between the region’s states will be necessary to achieve this monumental change, but the change will respond to historic needs and realities of separate nations.

The Taliban? The violent actions of the Taliban are more a problem of retributions for past offenses against Pashtu people than a potentially successful takeover of the Afghan government. Social, economic, cultural and political skills will be needed instead of guns and steel.

If the US government escalates the violence, it will beome a greater part of the problems in the “stans” instead of becoming a part of the solution. Russia thought its military could control Afganistan to serve Russian interests. Russian mothers bemoaned the loss of their sons as Russian military forces took successive pounding before eventually withdrawing. There is no military solution to be had in Afganistan. Seven years of war, bombing of Pastu, Tadjik, Uzbek and other lands have produced nothing but enemies and more violence. More military action will produce more violence and no solutions.

(c) 2008 Center for World Indigenous Studies

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