VIDEO BLOG
Episode 5: “How to Win in Afghanistan”
History’s lessons point to a radical method of war-fighting and peace-making, quite different from what the U.S. currently has in play. As Rod Serling used to say, “submitted for your approval.”
View the credits and transcript for Episode 5.
I think you make a lot of sense in how understanding tribes can be the key to success. One issue I might have – and it is really just a caveate on what you said about understanding a deal – I think they tend to be very shrewd deal-makers. If they can make a deal that plays us off Al Queda – or if they can make a deal where they think we will not enforce our end of the contract so that they can make a deal with Al Queda at the same time, they will do that. The problem with the deal is that they may perceive that we are too ignorant or they do not respect us enough to enter into the deal with honesty. They may claim to be trying to keep Al Queda out but then not really put forth real effort to do so. They may deal with us while still dealing with Al Queda under the table so to speak.
Once again, I have no doubt we’re dealing with tribal issues rather than Islam. Matter of fact, I’ve been rethinking much of modern history in that light.
But I take issue with your ideas on how to manipulate the Pashtuns. They’ve been doing this dance with every invader for thousands of years and suddenly we’re gonna change the music? Much as our combat units, and I stress that- combat units, are tribelike they aren’t tribes. They don’t fight in the tribal manner and, more importantly, they don’t hold tribal values.
You said it yourself, Mr. Pressfield, we hold this notion of womens empowerment to be sacrosanct. Tribesmen most emphatically don’t. And that’s pretty much the crux of the problem. The people we’re fighting see our culture as our most dangerous weapon. Hell, pretty much all of Islam sees Western culture (mostly as epitomized by America ) as the threat. That’s the basis of this whole “War on Terror”. They don’t like our culture one little bit and they’re fearful of it taking over theirs. They don’t want their women “empowered” and they don’t respect those who do.
As for respecting our power, I’m sure they see it for what it truly is: largely technology. Without a doubt our combat units display great courage. But a good deal of the respect for that is lost in our total dependance on high tech gadgetry to do much of our fighting for us. Warrior tribesmen fight in person not via remote control. The use of such devices as IEDs is merely seen as a necessary evil in order to level the playing field a bit. To depend too heavily on such gadgetry is to be womanly.
We have a clash of cultures going on and that’s putting it extremely mildly. In such a conflict I’d say the hometeam has the advantage.
Dear sean !
first of all i would like to say that iam not Taliban or Al qeda and my words does not support Taliban and Al qaeda in any terms and i fought against them for six years. i am a simple pashtun tribesman from Northeast of Afghanistan.
you said that tribemen fight in person . how come we can fight with you in persone while you have MRAPS , HMMWV ,GPS SYSTEMS , BFT , Air Support and a lot more . and we have nothing of those thecnology . if you see the IED it is made of very sample things that every body can make it so easly .
if we get the same technology that you have you and Taliban will be gone in a day ! as simple as that !
or you get the same thing that we have than the world will see who is fighting womenly.
and i think fightting and war have never been a solution to a problem in the history of mankind.
there are tow ways in Afghanistan to win this war . first way kill all the pashtuns . and seconde way make them your friends.and i think that the first way is impossiable if you take a glace throug the history.
so lets work it out . and work with these tribes politicaly and on other ways to make them frindes . and win this great war .
and one thing eles that do you know that why the Talibans or other are getting stronger and stronger day by day ?
and i wana say that again that iam a pashtun Tribel man my words does not support Taliban and Alqaeda in any way . any one who wana harm my tribes in any where iam his enemy.does not matter if it is the superpower of the world of a simple taliban
Interesting thoughts. Afghan parents want their children to be healty… want opportunities to create a bit more wealth than they have now… would be interested in access to markets beyond their boundaries… would like safe drinking water…. would like to increase crop production…
I don’t think it’s much more complicated than this. Their enemy and ours are the people who would place obstacles in their way to have whatever level of freedom and security they desire to live the way they choose.
Am I wrong about this?
You make a good case for a winning strategy for the medium to long term. I would add a technological component to the strategy. How about setting up a Voice of America service for Afghanistan and trade a hundred thousand hand-cranked radios to listen to it? How about a TV service that beams programs to Afghanistan and trade generator-driven TVs to the elders? How about spreading around some of those hundred dollar networked laptops people are peddling in Africa and South America, maybe teach some of the Afghan kids to use them. Knowledge of the outside world would be incredibly addictive and corrosive of tribal society. Once you learn about the outside world, you want to see it, which leads you to compare and contrast. The tribal societies of rural Pakistan will suffer greatly by comparison.
Western civilization will win against the tribes, which only thrive where there is no competition. After all, the Massachussett Indians don’t rule Boston, the Illini don’t rule Illinois, the Chumash hold no sway in California. Civilization beats the tribes not only with its power but also with its lifestyle. Indians would rather live in a house, ride a pickup truck, and buy groceries from a store than live in a wigwam, ride a horse, and hunt for their food. The Pashtun will not want to live in abject poverty once they have an idea of the richer life possible for them. We are a culture who excel in ideas and communication while they are not. That’s a fatal weakness for them.
Actually, some years ago (during Taliban rule in Afghanistan) I heard an NPR report on a radio sitcom written and produced by Afghan exiles… it sounded like an “All in the Family” kind of show, except it included helpful insights about the best ways to plant crops, cook, take care of ailments… I wish I could remember the NPR segment to go back and find it. Thought it was brilliant.
Great idea. I suggest we show the Pashtuns average US sitcoms, that way they’ll know that we consider men to be fat and stupid and our wives treat us like children. Or perhaps a selection of reality shows… how about Flavor of Love? Or we could show them all the movies where some 98 lb. girl runs around kicking mens asses. On the radio we could give them celebrity gossip like who Paris Hilton had sex with lately. The fact that men in our culture aren’t truly valued as men should come through loud and clear and tribesmen round the world will drop their AKs in favor of getting fat and collecting electronic gadgets. Soon they’ll all be comparing Blackberries around a watercooler in a cubicle farm where they collate health insurance data.
Western civilisation didn’t drive the American Indian onto the Reservation by producing consumer goods. We did it the old fashioned way. Primarily by infecting them with disease (albeit unwittingly) and them waging a long drawn out war of attrition on them. And those selfsame Indians didn’t wake up one day and compare ways of life, those left alive had a sinple choice: do it our way or die. They lost the war. No apologies from me, that how things were done then. But please don’t try to make it into some simple “lifestyle choice”, that demeans us all.
The tribal societies can teach us something, we “modern” sophisticates of the world: that underneath all of the electronics, the toys, the high-tech, etc. is a world very much like that of our forebearers in primal times – a jungle in which being a man counts for something. Pressfield says it himself in one of the installments, that the tribes thrive on hardship.
Dinesh D’Souza, who is an Indian of American citizenship, knows something of cultures in South Asia, and in his book “The Enemy At Home,” discussed the very same idea that Pressfield does, that the tribes fear modernity itself, because it is corrosive of traditonal values and life. D’Souza notes that in the west, there are many who feel much the same about the excesses of modernity, that they undermine family and community, and that they are not the unalloyed good they are taught to be in our schools, universities and media. Moreover, in his most controversial conclusion, D’Souza places much of the blame for our degraded state of culture on the cultural and political left, and suggests that conservatives and traditionalists here make common cause with traditionalists in tribal societies, to the extent that this is possible. D’ Souza is not advocating support for the radicals, the jihadists, but instead those who dislike or fear the pernicious effects of modern western culture. In short, D’Souza recommends a deal with elements of tribal societies, or at least a sharing of hardship, a commiseration over the wave of trashy modern culture eminating from Hollyweird and places like it. My point is not the domestic political implications of D’Souza, it is that he recommends a deal also.
Tribal societies can teach us something else, that men still have their place. Significant swaths of western culture seem to have lost sight of that fact, and become feminized. We won’t ever go back to being all of us cowboys or what have you, but we could do worse than become more like our forefathers, the men who tamed a continent. As Pressfield says, the tribes respect strength, and those pioneers were strong.
One last point: technology is always seductive as a means of gaining advantage in conflict, especially to the Pentagon, but as John Boyd used to say “People, ideas, and technology – in that order!” The tribes will be won over face-to-face, not by drones piloted in Nevada.
This from jesusnotallah, sent via YouTube. Very interesting and very much worth reading.
Hi steven pressfiled.
SOme point you made are good but some point you have made big mistake. It is always good to study what has been written by many people already. The pashtun trible as you say is an old tribed and so many books has been written about them. It would have given you a good picture of the whole pashtun wali code o honour.You have made some good points but some of them are far from reality as well ha ha. So here are few things that will help you to put up another better video.
Some thing in the pashtun tribe is far too demcratic then any other nation on earth and there are too many things but I will only mention few of them..
1) In pashtun wali code an enemy who has murdered your family members if he ask for forgivness he must be totally forgiven. This is the highest form of democracy and it does not exists any where even in britian and america you wont get away from the law even if you were really sorry which is pretty backward law and order in what we call democratic countries.
2) women are totally excluded from any form of law pusnisment. No women can be charge with any crime she enjoys totally freedom from pusnishment of any sort. I.e women cannot be intarogatted . women cannot be put in prison. women cannot be given any punishment by the law. This is the highest freedom to women on earth? The taliban are not so liked by many pashtun because the taliban have islamic law and it goes right against the pashtun wali code.
3) A man cannot divorce a woman, if he divorces a woman he faces death penality by the pashtun wali code of honour. A women can divorce a man if she choose to? who has the biggest priority here? women are men?
4) Men are seen as wilian (bade boys) by the pashtun wali code of honour so all the panishment is given to them not women.
5) Since only women can choose to divorce a man not man that mean if a woman choose to divorces a man she owns the kids completley. I am sure if women heard this in western EU they will be dancing in the streets every saturday and sunday nights without going to clubs.
The taliban law which is Islamic law is rights against this pashtun wali law. that is why many pashtun do not want to believe an any religion.
6) If an enemy captured in the combat was found that he has committed no crime at all. No rape etc and he was just a soldier doing his duty ( which includes he may have shot the oppenent in the battle field but that is not seen a crime since he was on the battle field doing his job) if this soldier is captured the pashtun wali code of honour says he must be set free and go home to his family safely because he did not committed any crime. He must not be given any form of pusnishment or intarogation like you have in the american law and order. That is totally forgiven. NO form of torutre or any thing like that. Sadly obama said it is the part of the american justice but in pashtun wali code it is not the part of the system thank God for that.
7) The giraga system. All major decision are to be made in publick by all people comming together discussing it and then all of them decide together what is the best? this is the highst form of democracy because in western world it is the few who decide all things not every body.
The pashtun wali code of honour is supposed to be follow automatically but as the world advance many people do not keep it and it is supposed to be upheld by the tribal chief fisrt but Islamic law and religion is becoming a biggest obstical to the pashtun wali code of honour.
There are too many highest democarcy things that I can go on and on but I only shared a few.
However many are not democratic as well. So you got this system where some things is so ahead that no no nation on earth has it? like women owns the kids, and they cannot be put in prison or pusnishment etc etc.
On the otherside we have some old laws which are not democratic but it is the same with the western wolrld many laws are not democracy but abuses and tyrany. The abused of prisoner of war by the law of united stated is considerd as a vlide form intarogations? so such law does exist in tribes but some exist which are not as bade as the one in western EU but still not democratic. You will never find a race or country that is all together democracy
Regards
(
hey
As i wrote on my other comments that by learning pashtu you can not be a pashtun.
as you said that your father went to USA long time ago and you have been there for 22 years and even you change your religion, so it mean that you know a little bid about us but it does not mean that your a pashtun.
you said that women are not punished by law in pashtonwali . that is 100 % wrong . in pashtunwali law is law it is same for every one.
exmple* in my province KHOST one persone (it is not good to mention his name in here) ran away with a girl to BAGHLAN which is a province in the north 40 years ago. they had family grand sons and grand doughters there. after a long time they return to khost to thire tribe and both of them were killed after 40 years at the ages of around 60. which mean that man and women can be punished according to what ever they did.
the reasone for that is , that theire parents were not agreed to thier marrige.
and so on your 4 ,5 are also wrong.
on the 6 you said that the prisnor is set free.
onther exaple again from my province that in 2003 in PUNZAIA VILLAGE of khost proivce a person killed the whole family of his enemy . even his little child in cradle . that child was not involved in fightting at all.but the persone who kill him knew that if he let him go he will grow up and one day he will take the revange.
which mean here that you are totaly wrong.
and dont wana give you a head ache but i wana say it again that by learning pashtu language you can not be a pashtun.and the good proof for that is , that your a christian and pashtuns has no christians at all.
IN response to Ayatollah Noorzay:
you know very little about pashtun wali law and order. What you have described is an experience of some barbaric parent killing even their daughter. This is not the original pashtun wali law and order. These kinds of law and order has come to pashtuns with the coming of Islam. But u have no idea who we were before Islam? A single village experience in you life is supposed to be pashtun wali law and order. It just shows how little do you know about the pashtun wali law and order. You might as well put the entire Islamic law into the pashtun wali and says it is pashtun wali? Go back and study from old text book not just a little experience of some family from your village. Yes I have seen many crazy things in our village too but none was according to the originally pashtun wali code.
When I said a woman is excluded from punishment from the LAW I was not talking about some barbaric village family killing their own daughter that is surly not pashtun wali. Goes back study rather then sharing you barbaric village experiences?
Thanks for put up the comments. Here is some more information that some one may like. Sorry for too many English mistakes.
1) Steven is totally justified in saying that tribes do not want to change and the reasons are many for that. But I would like to share on final point about the pashtun wali code of honour to bring the whole article to a close.
For 2500 years or for the last 2500 hundred years. the pashtun race has some laws which are far too ahead of its time. We do not know where they got them from? We can assume that may be because they were a small minority of the persian empire so supposedly they got it from persian who got it from aristotle and socretes etc. but here is one of the most interesting law i had ever seen or read in the history of the entire human race. for thousand of years the pashtun wali law says that if a man steal he must repay what he has stolen but if he is so poor that he stole because he was hungrey he repays nothing but is supposed to be helped by the tribel council and authority etc. If he was not poor and he still stole then he simply repays back what he has stolen and he must bear a bade name among his people until he make amandments. Improve himself to be worthy of respect again. The person was some how rejected and dispised for a while once he learns he must be respected all over again and not given any further bade name. No other form of punishment or law is allowed. But because Islam took over as a result some of the best law are damaged in the pashtun wali life style. Many says that Islam is a way out because many pashtun are no longer keeping up with an old code so they thing Islam may be the only option. But this is just to show that Islam is no where near to what the original pashtun wali code of honour is. In some places yes but in majority no.
for the last 2000 years if you study what happened to all those who stole either rich or poor in many countries it will make you very frightened like in England people used to be hanged for stealing. In Islam u loose your hand in the roman world some people were crucified. but in this tribe in all these years such barbaric punishment were not allowed. Islam is eating away the old pashtun wali life style. In swat region from 1849 1969 it was helf pashtun wali law and half Islamic law that means there were no pluging or cutting of hands etc. But once they joined pakistan all those good laws disappeard and now poeple do not get any justice at all.
The closes law to the good laws in pashtun wali is actually the law of Christ. there is no other law that is nearer to most laws of the pashtun wali code other then christ law. Some law may be nearer to Islamic law but very few indeed. In pasthun wali code you cannot marry many women but if you do it is a choice between the man and those who will marry him
too many other thing but that is enough
Regards
YOU SHOULD VISITE AMENTALE DOCTOR FOR YOUR TREATMENT MAN. YOU ARE TOTALY WRONG.
once you said that stealing in pashtun wali is ok if get cought and repay.
and in other place you said that pashuns laws are the christ laws.
let me tell you something that pashtuns dont have a written law . to that law you have to be amongs the pashtuns . you are living in the west and writting about the pashtuns law.
as i said that pashtuns dont have a written law it change according to the satuations.
there are no christians in pashtun exapt those who immigrated to West like you .
so please pleas pleas visit doctor for your mental problems.
in response Asadullah Noorzay
You are a very very ignorant man. What is nan wati? You are so ignorant that talking to you is useless because as you said you are villager in Afghanistan and all you are sharing is your village experiance. Tell me what is Nana Wati. If you do not know that you are not a pashtun at all. Type nan wati in google and even google will tell you what is it? Is that like your pathetic religion of Islam or like Christ? But you do not know nothing. So you might as well start riding on you donkey again.
Steve,
Good OPED article in the Wall Street Journal today.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124520391183921807.html
It discusses some plans of General McChrystal pertaining to the importance of keeping certain troops in place longer to maintain relationships in Afghanistan. Also, as one of few fortunate Marines to have deployed to the exact same area twice I could only begin to expand on the incredible benefits of keeping a unit (our tribes) closely connected with a specific area in country. While manpower and logistics issues concerning these types of policies are well out of my scope this definitely seems like a step in the right direction.
Another good point eluded to in the article is that these long term or repetitive billets shouldn’t be restricted only to those in a military uniform. If we don’t have some State Department personnel living in the same villages with Afghani diplomats and government agricultural experts that are deploying to spend every day in fields I think we’re only going half in and ‘winning’ has got to be an all or nothing commitment. With that, I’d say that another good read for every junior officer is the 1958 book The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer.
Thanks again for all the discussion, Tony
I note that most of the comments to Mr. Pressfield’s videos come from a savvy group of individuals who, in general seem to be ‘in touch’ with global culture and politics. That is good in one sense because Mr. Pressfield offers a well-defined course of action that has the potential to succeed in an environment where current tactics seem to be ‘holding the line’ at best. I recall seeing his original OpEd, “It’s the Tribes, Stupid” in the Seattle newspaper nearly three years ago. Frankly, I sent a copy to Bill O’Reilly and suggested he invite Mr. Pressfield to the Factor. Apparently, my comments were not ‘pithy’ enough. It occurs to me, however that these videos need to reach a broader spectrum, they need to reach ‘the common man.’ Too often Joe Public pays little heed to the world around him, and most likely his friends and family don’t even know where Afghanistan is. That’s when things go to hell in a hand basket, when we ignore the events that occur around the world that can and will affect us. We can influence how world events affect our personal lives only if we are knowledgeable and involved. Clearly Mr. Pressfield understands that and has taken the time to help us understand it as well. Even as a former Air Force fighter pilot from the ‘70’s, I find myself playing ostrich and burying my head in the sand too often hoping that ‘things will work out.’ But I recently wrote in a corporate newsletter, “The days of Mad Magazine cover boy Alfred E. Neuman’s ‘What, me worry?’ moniker are well behind us, and it’s time for us to take stock of where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re going.” Mr. Pressfield has taken it upon himself to offer some well-researched and well-founded guidance. My personal advice is that we need to forward these videos and pass them on to as many people as possible to create a greater awareness of the situation and potential solution so we can put this behind us by encouraging our leaders to act in a reasonable, logical and responsible way.
HI SIR (Steven)
you did a great job by creating such vedios about the reality and the facts of pashtuns tribes. and i wll sugest that if it is possile to set up a call conferace or skipe vedio so we(every body) can talk to each other in a sepsific time .
i dont know , it is my sugestion
and thank for such a great job !