Afghan Warlord’s Call to Arms Rattles Officials

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/world/asia/ismail-khan-powerful-afghan-stokes-concern-in-kabul.html?pagewanted=all

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Tue, Nov 13, 2012 at 8:24 AM
Subject: re: Afghan Warlord’s Call to Arms Rattles Officials
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Warlords in Afghanistan have been learning from America's last decade, even if we haven't. General Petraeus's signal achievement was built on deception. Under cover of a temporary build-up of manpower (one can always use more headcounts) he shifted our focus from building national institutions in Iraq to arming and enabling sectarian militias there.  The result was a rapid drop in deaths; nobody messes with these militias on their home turf.  But in the long-term, it has guaranteed that Iraq will break up into smaller states along ethnic lines.  

   Now warlords in Afghanistan see that the U.S. has given up on a fool's errand, building strong national institutions there. They know that if there is to be any order when we're gone, they will have to create it. Eventually, Uzbeks and Tajiks and Hazaras and Pashtuns and a dozen other groups who were lumped together when the British drew the border of Afghanistan will (and should) achieve national self-determination as promised in the U.N. charter. Until then, we would be wise to avoid spending American lives and wealth trying futilely to command the tides.

Barry Haskell Levine