Thread: The "new" Taliban is...

Years ago, I offered up the opinion that the answer to the Taliban is local militia. Each village would have a militia commander and volunteers, and a village armory, manned and guarded 24/7. Festivals, markets, weddings, any gathering of people, would have a militia element.

The Taliban would find cutting heads off a lot harder if people were allowed to fight back. Like most cowardly terrorist groups, they are a lot more eager to terrorize when their targets are helpless.

Of course, the standard argument applies... militia members would form rebel groups, join warlords, engage in lawless behavior. Maybe, but I think the percentage would be low. Like any sample population of humans, the majority want to live their lives unmolested and watch their children grow up.

Originally Posted by Chogy

Years ago, I offered up the opinion that the answer to the Taliban is local militia. Each village would have a militia commander and volunteers, and a village armory, manned and guarded 24/7. Festivals, markets, weddings, any gathering of people, would have a militia element.

The Taliban would find cutting heads off a lot harder if people were allowed to fight back. Like most cowardly terrorist groups, they are a lot more eager to terrorize when their targets are helpless.

Of course, the standard argument applies... militia members would form rebel groups, join warlords, engage in lawless behavior. Maybe, but I think the percentage would be low. Like any sample population of humans, the majority want to live their lives unmolested and watch their children grow up.

Exactly, we too have such a system in Jammu & Kashmir, called the Village defence committees (VDCs). They are armed by the govt.
Another system that we have is of civilians on govt payroll, called Special Police officers (SPOs), located in villages.

These VDCs have fought off terrorists even with .303s. Our experience is that when the villagers fire back the jihadis scoot like rabbits.

The key is discerning those invested in their community from those ultimately invested in themselves.

One of the more effective counter VC-elements ion Viet Nam were the regional forces/provincial forces (the RUFF PUFFs). They were the local militia who were nominally loyal to the RVN government but were most loyal to hearth and home and willing to fight against VC and NVA which attacked them. While often denigrated they were actually the best and most effective of the non-SF supported ARVN elements in the Viet Nam War.

As The Dude states....how do we find that sweet spot in Astan?

Originally Posted by Chogy

Years ago, I offered up the opinion that the answer to the Taliban is local militia. Each village would have a militia commander and volunteers, and a village armory, manned and guarded 24/7. Festivals, markets, weddings, any gathering of people, would have a militia element.

The Taliban would find cutting heads off a lot harder if people were allowed to fight back. Like most cowardly terrorist groups, they are a lot more eager to terrorize when their targets are helpless.

Of course, the standard argument applies... militia members would form rebel groups, join warlords, engage in lawless behavior. Maybe, but I think the percentage would be low. Like any sample population of humans, the majority want to live their lives unmolested and watch their children grow up.

The idea has been explored and tried in Pakistan, but there is a great degree of reluctance to continue with it or empower the militia's beyond a certain point - the concerns are that, given tribal dynamics and inter-tribal tensions and feuds, these militias and the resources provided to them could end up being being turned against the State down the road, especially if some 'charismatic and ambitious' personality ends up taking control and chooses to use the militias as a means of blackmailing the State.

The 'compromise' that has been discussed in Pakistan is one of linking these militias to local government and putting them under local government/police control. This of course is hard to implement because of the lack of local government in many of these areas.

On the subject of the Taliban balking at taking on the local militias, in Pakistan at least the experience has been the opposite - the TTP, especially the groups operating out of Eastern Afghanistan, have engaged in some pretty heavy combat with these militias requiring the military/para-military forces to step in to support the militias.

This incident illustrates the dangers of militias:

KABUL: A pro-government Afghan militia commander and his men on Sunday shot dead at least eight civilians in revenge, after mistakenly blaming villagers for a Taliban attack, officials said.

The commander, identified as Qadeer, drove to Kanum village outside the northern city of Kunduz with about 20 members of his militia and killed eight villagers, the Kunduz provincial governor told AFP.

“The Taliban had killed two men and dumped their bodies in Kunum village.

One of them was Qadeer’s man,” Mohammad Anwar Jegdalek said.

“Qadeer, thinking his man was killed by the residents of Kunum, went there and killed eight villagers. We have launched a hunt to arrest Qadeer.” Three others including a woman were wounded, he said.

Speaking anonymously, an interior ministry official in Kabul gave a similar account to AFP but said a total of nine people had been wounded.

The official said authorities had sent reinforcements to the area to maintain order.

Local doctor Taza Gul said 10 bodies were brought to his hospital.

Jegdalek’s spokesman Enayatullah Khaleeq told AFP Qadeer was a pro-government militia leader.

Pro-government Afghan militia ‘kills eight civilians’ | DAWN.COM