US Hoping for Afghan Civilians to Fight Off Taliban Themselves

Cites Anti-Taliban Uprisings in Small Villages

In 11 years of occupation, NATO has repeatedly tried and failed to defeat the Taliban. The Afghan military has grown to 200,000 fighters, but they likewise seem to struggle to even hold their own with them, let alone decisively beat them.

Who does that leave? The civilian population apparently, as US officials are now expressing hope that the civilians in various locations with a Taliban presence will just spontaneously take up arms and sweep themselves to victory.

Officials say its at least possible, citing the cases of a few villages in the Ghazni Province that got sick of Taliban fighters and chased them out of their municipalities. But can a few villages turn into a whole nation?

That’s not clear, and even less clear is if the villagers, who were fed up with Taliban meddling, are going to be any more welcoming to the corrupt Afghan government and NATO occupation forces, or if they are going to turn on any outsiders trying to impose their will on them. If so the uprisings might be an even bigger problem for NATO than the Taliban.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.