Very encouraging – suggests a plan to get your views more widely known?
Rob

Boy, I really love the conversation here, and the comments remind me of a conversation we had over at Free Range International. Tim Lynch is the author of that blog, and it is a fantastic read in regards to Afghanistan.
One of the things we discussed was the whole Scout thing, and the name that came up was the Jezailchis or the Jezailchis Scouts concept. The idea being is to not only engage with the tribes, but take advantage of their warrior spirit and create a unit or group that they all want to be a part of that identifies them as a special breed of warrior within their tribe. And in the case of Afghanistan, a warrior class that has some history backing it up, like the Jezailchis.
The inspirations for the Jezailchis come from all over, but some of the stuff that was being thrown around are the Selous Scouts, Indian Scouts, Groupement de Commandos Mixtes, etc. Small teams doing very interesting things. These guys would be hunters, and have intimate knowledge of the enemy. Hell, have them be former enemy combatants if possible.
If we want to really get into the OODA loop of the enemy, we need to get small and we need to look like them in order to get close. And if we teach these tribes the tools necessary to be effective fighters, and for years to come, then in essence, we will have taught them ‘to fish’ and feed themselves. Especially if they are all about killing the Taliban and company. I would also give these guys more of a militia status, with a possibility of making them government outright. The reason being, is that if no one trusts the government or has respect for it, then why start a group that is directly attached to it.
But back to the Jezailchis Scouts. These guys should be masters at combat tracking, marksmanship (heavy emphasis there), survival (not a stretch for a local), scouting, etc. All of this could be taught to these Jezailchis Scouts, and if they are properly vetted, they could certainly have a high possibility of passing the courses. They would also be a source of pride within the tribes.
Create the brand and the architecture, and we should have a winner. The pay off, is that maybe one day, a small band of Jezailchis Scouts would happen to wonder across that damn border, and get a visual or even a shot at Usama Bin Laden? Or that the JS could be the group that finds the unique little overland paths that the Taliban take in order to go back and forth every season, and calls that stuff into the right folks who have access to CAS. Better yet, if these Jezailchis Scouts started getting a name for themselves, and the Taliban and AQ begins to fear this highly lethal force, then we can really start smiling. It would be the one way to out-Taliban the Taliban, and if done properly, it would be the gift that would keep on giving for years to come.
We even talked about who could train these new Afghan warriors, or even set up a JZ school in Afghanistan. Tactical Operations Tracking School could be a model. The founder of this school, David Scott Donelan, is former Selous Scout, and has been teaching Combat Tracking for a long long time. He is the go to guy for something like this. No use re-inventing the wheel. I am sure there are some competent combat tracker types in the Special Forces community, but Scott is a master at this stuff.
Here is a link to the conversation here. Take care. S/F -Matt
http://freerangeinternational.com/blog/?p=2291#comments

Thank you very much for reading the paper and keeping up with the blog. I appreciate your words and Steve has some great things planned here for the future…

Take Care,

STRENGTH AND HONOR

Jim

Thank you for your post and your continued interest with this idea. As I was putting information together when I first started to try to disect what my team did in Mangwel, within some type of framework or model for success, I read all that I could get my hands on that had anything to do with what the British tried to do in the “Pashtun” controlled area of Afghanistan and Pakistan. I am in total agreement with understanding and learning from what has gone in the PAST. Particluary when dealing with this proud people and their history. They do not see time as we do. To them, Alexander the Great invaded, yesterday…I was intrigued by the reading that I did about the men, and what they were able to accomplish. It is also pretty amazing when you look at what SF did with the Montagnards and the CIDG programs, how similiar they are with what I believe will work in some areas of Afghanistan.

I will get the books you told me about, as I am an avid reader. It may be the one habit I have that isn’t bad!

Please stay in touch and continue to give me ideas, thoughts and send good articles that you find my way. You are helping out more than you know by doing this.

Thanks again for your time.

STRENGTH AND HONOR

Jim Gant

For the Imperial Brits did have such a strategy. And it did work.

Since reading your paper, I have gone back to looking at the “Frontier Scouts”. The Brits did what you are recommending back in the day.

These units were raised from Tribes and each was coherent – from one tribe. They were lightly armed and had upto 6 Brits. But some times only 1 when on patrol or in the small forts that were used as blocking places.

There only defence was the relationship with their men. In many cases, Scouts from the same tribe would fight each other. But sometimes this did not work out as the story attached describes.

Here is a link to a great site and the story of Col Russell’s classic retreat http://www.khyber.org/publications/011-015/britishretreat.shtml

Col Russell sounds a lot like you.

More here on the situation and tactics http://www.khyber.org/publications/041-045/armyininda.shtml

You are in good company Major Gant.

The Brit officers had a 3-4 year tour. They wore tribal dress. They were funded not by the army but by the civil power. They were tied into the political agent who also had very long tours of many years and who were embedded into the top tribal ranks.

I think that there are books to be read and a few people that are still alive that can give you the insight that only one warrior cam offer another.

A book that is easy to find still is the one I started with – John Masters’ Bugles and a Tiger – his autobiography about his time on the Frontier in the late 1930’s.

A person whom you could meet woud be Col John Cross who is the MAN is still alive and living in Nepal. He has several books in print and there is a great YouTube interview with him here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnyJfM5_Nbw Part 2 follows.

He was on the frontier with the Ghurkas in the early 1940’s – he is also one of the most distinguished jungle fighters ever and the embodiment of the kind of officer that has given his life to the people he loves the most – his adopted people of Nepal.

I have ordered a new book of his that has a forward by Robert Kaplan who knows Cross quite well https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1934840785/ref=oss_T15_product

The definitive book on the Frontier and the approach and operations of the Brits is Chenivix Trench’s The Frontier Scouts – it is out of print but can be found for not too much money on Abe Books. Here is a brief description http://www.antiqbook.co.uk/boox/trave/3571.shtml

I wish you well
Yours
Rob Paterson