U.S. Help From Afghanistan Militias

Emily Broder-Bizar
Staff Writer

Afghanistan’s past and present is filled with strife. Whether the fight is between warlords or some outside force, conflict in Afghanistan is nothing new. In fact, warlords helped the United States oust the Taliban in 2001 after the September 11th terrorist attacks of the Taliban-supported al-Qaeda. Now, eight years later, the U.S. is still deeply entrenched in Afghanistan, with more troops awaiting deployment in the upcoming year.
To fight the Taliban, the U.S. has again enlisted the help of local militias and warlords. According to Dexter Filkins of the New York Times, American and Afghan officials are partnering up with anti-Taliban militias that have taken up arms to fight insurgents. Filkins says, “The emergence of the militias has so encouraged the American and Afghan officials that they are planning to spur the growth of similar armed groups.” This plan is called the Community Defense Initiative, and is apparently backed by both U.S. and Afghan officials. The plan is designed to provide communities with their own “neighborhood watch” programs. President Karzai’s government has previously resisted sponsoring these militias, fearing they would pose a threat to the government’s authority. However, the hope is that this program will allow U.S. troops to focus on more pressing issues at a time that the Taliban are on the rise. The Community Defense Initiative is similar to a plan used in Iraq in 2006. This plan paid members of Sunni tribes to defend their neighborhoods.
Fighting with the help of militias may have been successful in Iraq, but there are a host of issues with this plan. These anti-Taliban militias could turn on one another, or the U.S. and Afghan officials, destroying the entire plan. The Community Defense Initiative depends on the reliability of the militias, whose members may only be participating for the money. Officials do say that precautions will be taken to avoid repeating history and supporting militias that will one day “haunt” the U.S. by keeping groups small and limiting their activities to protecting villages and manning checkpoints. Still, past experiences of the United States teaming up with natives have not been successful. In Vietnam, the U.S. fought unsuccessfully with local militias and while Afghanistan is no Vietnam—there are fewer casualties, America was as President Obama said “viscously attacked”, and the Taliban is no longer the head of state—it does not seem wise to rely on militias that may or may not be interested in what the United States deems to be success in Afghanistan.
The war in Afghanistan is far from over. More troops have been ordered to Afghanistan, and the army is partnering with militias but hopefully, past mistakes will not be repeated and a Taliban resurgence will be prevented.