Understanding the Taliban and Insurgency in Afghanistan

Abstract

Afghanistan is in danger of capsizing in a perfect storm of insurgency that mimics operations and tactics witnessed in Iraq. This article assesses this insurgency and the reemergent Taliban. The common view of the Taliban as simply a radical Afghan Islamist movement is overly simple, for that organization has been able to build on tribal kinship networks and a charismatic mullah phenomenon to mobilize a critical and dynamic rural base of support. This support, buttressed by Talib reinforcements from Pakistan's border areas, is enough to frustrate the U.S.-led Coalition's counterinsurgency strategy. At the operational level, the Taliban is fighting a classic war of the flea, while the Coalition continues to fight the war largely according to the Taliban game plan. This is resulting in its losing the war in Afghanistan one Pashtun village at a time.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2007
Accession Number
ADA593979

Entities

People

  • M. C. Mason
  • Thomas H. Johnson

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Asia
  • Central Asia
  • Civil War
  • Governments
  • Guerrilla Warfare
  • Insurgency
  • International Organizations
  • Man Borne Improvised Explosive Devices
  • Military Science
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Recreation
  • Terrorism
  • Terrorists
  • United States
  • Urban Areas
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • History
  • Sociology

Readers

  • Political Violence and Terrorism Studies.
  • Strategic Security Studies