The Pashtun of Southern Afghanistan: Contextualizing a "Hearts and Minds Message"
Abstract
In order to achieve success in the current counter-insurgency fight in Afghanistan, recent military guidance has focused on winning the hearts and minds of the Afghani population. This type of warfare requires innovative new approaches, and thought regarding affecting a populations support of a government, and the ideals it represents. Afghani people are being asked to reject Taliban governance in favor of a new Afghan National Government supported by the US led coalition. The goal of coalition forces is to create a stable Afghanistan with the ability to control and restrict terrorist activities. The way ahead is littered with cross-cultural landmines. Forces acting on behalf of the coalition, and by extension the Afghan central government, must understand these cultural landmines in order to be successful in a hearts and minds campaign. The remainder of this paper will focus on the Pashtun people group of southern Afghanistan depicted in Figure 1 .
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 31, 2010
- Accession Number
- AD1020077
Entities
People
- Neal Iii Newell
Organizations
- Air Command and Staff College