This isn't an AfPak roundup- those aren't being done by me anymore, remember?
However, this is important enough to report. It's a very positive sign. It's one of those things we have to start seeing if we ever hope to leave Afghanistan, and leave Afghanistan in a time of peace rather than pieces.
I'm pretty sure this is the first time that an entire Pashtun tribe- or at least, the first time that a very large Pashtun tribe- has declared war on the Pashtun-movement known as the Taliban.
The New York Times has a great article up. The elders of the Shinwari tribe agreed to support the Karzai government, battle insurgents, and to "burn down the home of any Afghan" that harbors the Taliban. The Shinwari elders represent approximately 400,000-600,000(Dawn) people in Nangahar-province of eastern Afghanistan, who's capital is Jalalabad. Also, in the event of a Taliban attack, the elders pledged to send one military-aged male from every family to fight in the Afghan army or police.
This should not be mistaken as being the work of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"We are doing this for ourselves, and ourselves only," said Hajji Kafta, one of the elders. "We have absolutely no faith in the Afghan government to do anything for us. We don’t trust them at all."
What did the trick is $1,000,000 in development aid provided by the U.S. military to the shuras, which therefore allows the money to bypass the central government. There is also around $200,000 for jobs. In war-torn and dirt-poor Afghanistan, every dollar goes a long way. The tensions between the Shinwari and the Taliban have been brewing for awhile, exploding in the Momand valley back in the summer. The incident caught the attention of U.S. Special Forces.
The entire article is worth a read. And to be blunt, it is very much debatable what sort of sway the tribal elders still have amongst the Shinwari. Decades of warfare and the revolutionary-influence of the Taliban has undone much of the social fabric that had ruled Afghanistan's culture for awhile.
Nonetheless, the only way the Taliban can be defeated is with the help of the tribal elders. This is a major development, and I hope Greg Mortenson would approve.
Update:
Thanks for the rec list, but please don't let this very important diary fall off the rec list. Make sure you get the news today.