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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bread Upon The Water who wrote (126162)	12/3/2009 6:40:55 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 543218

Hmm, I agree with your observation that it's actually not clear the degree to which the US will try to replace a tribal structure with a modern military/police one. I had read some earlier stuff, focusing on McChrystal, in which he and his subordinates argued that the tribal structure was the better counter insurgency bet. But I agree with your argument that Obama's speech focused on the latter. Will be interesting to see which way it goes. As for my use of the term "modern" to describe the Taliban, I meant to convey my impression that they have a nationally based command structure. I don't mean it's as tight nor as hierarchical as something like the US military. Rather that every level is answerable, in a loose sense, to a central authority. Again, I'm basing that on several readings but most particularly on Ahmed Rashed's work.