Military Review English Edition May-June 2014 | Page 78
Limited to the tactics, techniques, and procedures
within the COIN framework, our military officers
did the best they could. The establishment of the
combat outpost Restrepo, resulting from a sound
tactical terrain analysis of the Korengal Valley,
precipitated a dramatic reduction of violence in
the valley. Our military leaders have not failed at
the operational and tactical levels. Our national
leaders who start wars from their Washington,
D.C. offices do not use a rigorous framework
similar to the joint operational planning process,
the military decision-making process, or even
“design” to keep them focused. The decision to
adopt the COIN framework, pushed heavily by
ideologically driven private lobbies and think
tanks, resulted in the limitation of military options
at the operational level.
A study of Afghan and Central Asian history
shows that the land of modern-day Afghanistan
was repeatedly conquered and settled by successive waves of invaders. Cyrus the Persian conquered Afghanistan in fifth century B.C., settling
the area with Farsi-speaking ancestors of today’s
Tajiks. Alexander’s Greeks conquered Afghanistan in the third century B.C. They established
Bactria, which lasted over three centuries, in an
area completely isolated from their European
cousins. The White Huns, or Hephthalites, followed the Kushans, who conquered and absorbed
the Greeks of Bactria. The Hephthalites are today
known as the Abdali tribe of the Pashtuns. The
Mongols under Genghis Khan and later under
Timur and Babur also conquered and settled this
land. The very presence of the Tajik, Pashtun,
and Hazara people in Afghanistan shows that
outside groups have successfully conquered and
integrated themselves into Afghan civilization.
Only western armies have failed to fully subdue
Afghanistan, beginning with the British and later
the Soviets and now the Americans. The successful conquerors of Afghanistan understood and
respected the local tribal system of governance.
Requiring little more than submission, swearing
of fealty, and the payment of reasonable taxes,
conquerors such as Cyrus, Alexander, Genghis
Khan, Timur, and Babur brought centuries of
peace to Afghanistan. Only the West, which tried
to dismantle the traditional Central Asian way
of life and replace it with utterly foreign, and
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ultimately dysfunctional types of governance
(communism in the 1980s and liberal democracy
in 2000s), has failed to provide stable and lasting
governance in Afghanistan.
The invasion of the Korengal and Weygal
valleys represented a microcosm of the overall
Afghan campaign. U.S. forces entered numerous
…each tribe already has its
own legitimate government,
its own culture, and a nation
it considers its own.
areas in Afghanistan trying to displace cultures
and systems of governance with a poorl