Afghan Dynamics: Talks with Taliban, Warlords and NATO

Wedded to the warlords: NATO’s unholy Afghan allianceGRAEME SMITH, From Saturday's Globe and Mail, Jun. 03, 2011

Smoke billows above coils of razor wire after an earth-shaking explosion kills one of Afghanistan’s most powerful generals. The next day, a young officer with a neatly trimmed beard accepts a new job during a brief ceremony in the wood-panelled office of a southern governor.
A strongman dies and another rises. The bloody politics of Afghanistan travelled full circle with the death of General Daud Daud in the north and the promotion of Brigadier-General Abdul Razik in the south. The fall of one mirrored the rise of the other, marking the loss of an older generation of warlords and the birth of a new class of often brutal allies to whom NATO intends to start transferring power this summer.

The success of that transition depends on characters who might be too unpleasant to deal with under other circumstances. Having failed to establish a working government in many parts of Afghanistan, NATO is increasingly dependent on so-called strongmen, commanders whose power comes not only from their affiliation with Kabul but from militias, tribes and, often, the narcotics trade.
The two generals, Daud and Razik, exemplify that strategy. Though from different ethnic groups – Gen. Daud was a northern Tajik while Gen. Razik is a southern Pashtun – much united them. Each gained fearsome authority in his respective territory. Both have been accused of – and denied – drug dealing and heavy-handed tactics. Staunch enemies of the Taliban, both were embraced by the U.S. military and intelligence agencies.

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Related:
Move to Drop Key Taliban From Blacklist - WSJ
Balancing interests in Afghanistan - Express Tribune
Why the Taliban needs 'addressing' - By Abdul Salam Zaeef and Hekmat Karzai, Aljazeera