Feral Jundi

   I read these two articles by Mr. Haddick, and I took issue with a few points.  First, a viable COIN/Phoenix program would not only identify the enemy within an area, but it could also collect info on potential leaders to fill the gap once that enemy is removed.  And those leaders, in my view, are the natural tribal leaders that these folks would follow anyway. But really, that would be part of the mission as well, and that is to identify the best replacement leaders in a tribe or village and insure everything is in place before any action is taken.

   Or maybe you don’t take any action at all and just use that information that was collected for some bigger picture stuff. My point is that we need to understand the nodes of influence in these tribes and villages, and use that information to drive the strategies in our war efforts. Kill, capture, or just watch and learn–disrupt, dismantle, or destroy.

     I guess it would be nice if we could say that the government could fill in those vacancies, but in all actuality, a tribal leader would be better suited to watch over his people if some Taliban jackass was taken out of the picture. It would be nice if the government could control all of these tribes and rule over every square inch of their land, but at this time, and within the time frames we are trying to operate under, it is unrealistic.  I say co-op with the tribes, and co-op with the government at the same time, and maybe some day in the future the government can actually apply some rule of law and control in these remote areas. Besides, once the government is something that is appealing to the tribes, and there is actually some benefit, then they will naturally gravitate towards that kind of thing.  But with all the corruption and inability to protect anyone up in the hills, sorry, I don’t see it happening for them.  There are no Lions of Panjshir that I know of in government right now.

   Now the kind of program that I would like to see, is one that works with the types of tribes that support our efforts. The kind of tribes that hate the Taliban and do not want them to come back.  Next is to help these tribes, like with Maj. Gant’s TET concept, to defend themselves so they are strong enough to beat back the Big T.

     Then recruit from these tribes to form a crew that has the guts and intelligence to do the kinds of operations that would keep up the pressure on the Taliban and company well into the future. That is where the Jezailchis Scouts would come in.  The JS would be the special forces of that tribe, and these scouts are the types that would be perfect for future Phoenix type programs.  Especially if we wanted to send folks disguised to be Taliban, into regions that are under the Taliban death grip.  You need smart and capable recruits for that kind of duty, much like the Selous Scouts were back in their war, and the Jezailchis Scouts could be the answer.

   The way I envision these scouts, is that they would be fully committed to the concept of killing Taliban and practicing their deadly trade of sniping and tracking. These are the heroes and warriors of the tribes who would pride themselves on how well they shoot and maneuver in the mountains.  These are the real mountain men of the region, and once this is in full swing, we could be tapping into this deadly resource for all types of missions. That is the kind of folks you would need to do really specialized types of operations, like what a Phoenix program would require.  And if we were to look at how the Selous Scouts were able to assemble similar types of teams, then you would see the logic behind this and how lethal it could be.  You could even recruit former Taliban for something like this, and they would be ideal candidates because of their intimate knowledge of the enemy.

   That is my thoughts on the matter, and I would like to hear what you guys think?  Either way, check out this paper on the Phoenix program and see if you can ‘build a snowmobile’ out of it. –Matt

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The Jezailchis Scout? 

Does Afghanistan need a Phoenix Program?

By Robert Haddick

July 31, 2009

The Office of the Secretary of Defense hired the RAND Corporation to study the Vietnam-era Phoenix Program and recommend whether some of the program’s controversial techniques might be useful in Afghanistan. RAND’s researchers endorsed a Phoenix-like effort for Afghanistan and in the process, attempted to dispel some of the program’s myths.

What was the Phoenix program? RAND’s relatively brief report summarizes its history: In 1967 the U.S. military command and the CIA created a program — later called Phoenix — that began as an effort to improve intelligence-sharing among a long list of U.S. and South Vietnamese agencies.

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