Sgt. Joseph Chmielewski, from Task Force Gladius, pulls security during a key leader engagement in the village of Jalokheyl, Kapisa Province, Afghanistan. (Photo from Armchair General)From Yahoo News/Reuters:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The drive to stabilize Afghanistan must focus on cultivating local leaders, better training of Afghan troops and police, and pressing Kabul to fight corruption, a report by a U.S. think tank said on Tuesday.
Security in Afghanistan should be rethought to address failures in the seven years since the ousting of the Islamist Taliban after the September 11 attacks, the report published by the U.S. Institute of Peace says.
The top-down approach at nation-building that is focused on the central government in Kabul has not worked well because it ignores Afghanistan's decentralized history, said the U.S. Congress-funded institute's report, titled "Securing Afghanistan."
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My Comment: In theory ... the report makes sense. In practice .... I am not sure that these Western concepts will make headway in Afghanistan's different cultural and tribal societies.
But something new has to be done .... what has been applied for the past seven years is not working in present day Afghanistan.