From Strategy Page:
November 14, 2008: General. David Petraeus has been promoted from commander of U.S. forces in Iraq to commander of Central Command (CENTCOM), which includes everything from Egypt to Afghanistan. Petraeus now proposes that, as he did in Iraq, more effort be put into negotiating with the Pushtun tribes, to form an anti-Taliban coalition. This worked in late 2001, as a few hundred American CIA agents and Special Forces operators moved into Afghanistan and basically organized a tribal uprising against the Taliban government. As a result of that, the surviving Taliban leadership fled to tribal areas across the border in Pakistan, and lower ranking Taliban hunkered down to wait for conditions that would lead to a return to power. By exploiting the Afghan hatred of foreigners (and "outsiders" in general), the support for Islamic conservatism among many tribes in southern Afghanistan, cash from smugglers, drug gangs and Islamic charities, the Taliban sought to regain control of the country with a terror and bribery campaign.
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November 14, 2008: General. David Petraeus has been promoted from commander of U.S. forces in Iraq to commander of Central Command (CENTCOM), which includes everything from Egypt to Afghanistan. Petraeus now proposes that, as he did in Iraq, more effort be put into negotiating with the Pushtun tribes, to form an anti-Taliban coalition. This worked in late 2001, as a few hundred American CIA agents and Special Forces operators moved into Afghanistan and basically organized a tribal uprising against the Taliban government. As a result of that, the surviving Taliban leadership fled to tribal areas across the border in Pakistan, and lower ranking Taliban hunkered down to wait for conditions that would lead to a return to power. By exploiting the Afghan hatred of foreigners (and "outsiders" in general), the support for Islamic conservatism among many tribes in southern Afghanistan, cash from smugglers, drug gangs and Islamic charities, the Taliban sought to regain control of the country with a terror and bribery campaign.
Read more ....