POSTS TAGGED ‘Pakistan’
By Steven Pressfield | Published: August 17, 2009
I was very interested last week to see what would happen, in terms of leadership succession among the Pakistani Taliban, after the reputed death of Baitullah Mahsud. According to scores of press reports as well as Pakistani and Taliban spokesmen, the immediate aftermath was a shootout involving two rival successors, Hakimullah Mahsud and Wali ur-Rehman, that resulted in the death of Hakimullah Mahsud. Within two days however, Hakimullah was phoning in, according to the Economic Times, declaring not only that he was still alive but that so was Baitullah–and that the world would be hearing from both very shortly.
This is pretty Wild West stuff. What struck me on a deeper level, however, was that both incidents–Baitullah’s death and the subsequent succession gunfight–illustrate timeless truths about tribes and the tribal mind-set. (more…)
By Steven Pressfield | Published: June 11, 2009
Below is a terrific mini-bibliography from guest blogger Jeremy Ward that takes us back to the genesis of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan.
In 2001, in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, an extremely lean contingent of American forces–mostly CIA, SF and other special operators and intelligence specialists, backed up by U.S. air power–made their way into the country and hooked up with the indigenous forces that became known as the Northern Alliance. Seems like a long time ago, doesn’t it? The object was to destroy the Taliban as payback for their harboring Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda and permitting him to use their territory as a safe haven from which to plan, organize and launch the September 11th attacks. Sure enough, this unlikely alliance of U.S. air power, special operators and tribal/ethnic militias did just that in short order. (more…)
By Steven Pressfield | Published: June 9, 2009
Yesterday we talked about the idea that the real enemy in AfPak today is not militant Islam or jihadism or terrorism. It’s tribalism and the tribal mindset.
Now: how did this thesis evolve? What’s the source? Upon what authority do I put this idea forward? (more…)
