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WHAT'S UP IN WAZIRISTAN. I asked a source with expertise in the region for thoughts about the David Ignatius Waziristan column that we've been discussing today. The reply:
Nothing in there that's new. I don't think Washington is lacking for disgruntled ex-gov't employees with ideas how to solve this crisis or that... of course, Crumpton is smoking crack if he thinks that aid agencies can simply waltz into Waziristan or anywhere else in FATA and immediately deliver electricity and all sorts of other developmental goods. And it's similarly unclear why outsourcing the dirty work to the tribal militias will do the trick, when the current model of outsourcing to the Pakistan Frontier Corps has proven such an unmitigated disaster. Remember - foreign militants by and large only reside where they are welcome in the tribal areas. So the only tribes that would conceivably go along with an American strategy would be ones that are not currently hosting foreigners. Which would mean that, in order to score the US foreign policy objective, they'd have to be asked to basically invade other tribes' territorial abodes - not something I see happening in the Pashtun frontierlands...It might sound like a good idea to use the tribes to fight Al Qaeda, but using proxies to fight our wars for us can be a lot harder than it looks, and the prospect of success will depend a great deal on the specifics of the on-the-ground situation. That said, Ignatius deserves a lot of credit for casting the spotlight on this simmering issue, and for raising public awareness about how important what's happening in the area is to America's long-term safety.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
