Switching Playbooks

The Strategy Page ^ | 1/07/2010 | The Strategy Page

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

U.S. intelligence operations in Afghanistan have been ordered to adopt many of the systems and techniques that were used in Iraq. There, intelligence collecting came to include many social indicators, along with purely military items. Why didn't this approach develop in Afghanistan? Well it did, sort of, but in a scattered fashion. It never became the method for collecting and analyzing data on a national scale. Now it is. In another change, this data will be shared with allies. Normally, this sharing kind of sharing is entangled in a thicket of security restrictions. The thicket is getting pruned. All this is being done because winning the war in Afghanistan is all about politics, tribal politics. Most Westerners don't understand how important tribal politics is many parts of the world. "Tribal politics" is something most Westerns just can't take seriously, or even get their heads around. But consider that in the main combat zones of the war on terror (including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and many more), tribal politics cannot be ignored. U.S. appreciation, and exploitation, of tribal politics led to victory in Iraq. The same thing is happening in Afghanistan.