US officials say that the inability of General Stanley McChrystal to move forward with his “Local Defense Initiative” (LDI) in Afghanistan is directly related to Ambassador Karl Eikenberry’s opposition to the program.
The LDI, in short, is a plan for the US to fund and in some cases arm tribal militias in the hopes that those groups will be able to fight the nation’s ever growing insurgency. Gen. McChrystal has hoped the plan could make up for struggling NATO efforts to increase the size of the Afghan military and police forces.
But Eikenberry expressed concern that the program was unwise until they had managed to transform the Afghan central government into a credible ruling force, as increasing the power of locals could further threaten Karzai’s tenuous reign. He also reportedly said that shoddy intelligence could mean the US was funding groups whom it was fundamentally at odds with.
Making matters worse, officials have expressed concern that the LDI could further strengthen tribal warlords, who would presumably be leading most of these forces. Afghan society is rife with corruption, and warlords are seen as no small part of that phenomenon.
Though Gen. McChrystal is under pressure to produce quick results to sell the continuation of the war to the American public, the consensus, at least among civilian administrators, is that the LDI may create even more problems than it is supposed to solve.
Called Bribes!
Eikenberry was responsible for the Afghan National Army and civilian militias to be taken away from US Special Forces in 2005 resulting in an open border region that could not be secured by US Forces. The Local Defense Initiative is not a warlord creating program, it is designed to assist the local villagers in remote areas to defend themselves against Taliban and AQ monkeys that plunder their villages in the name of Islam. This program does not require us to arm an entire militia that will conduct offensive operations; it is a defense plan to deny freedom of movement of Taliban and foreign fighters. US Special Forces (Green Berets) have been doing this type of mission for much longer than Eikenberry has been in the Army and he has never served in that environment and he is not a subject matter expert on Afghanistan, his focus has always been China; that doesn't apply here. His time in Afghanistan as a General makes him a decent politician at best, not a war fighter on the ground. McChrystal is the man in charge of combat forces in Afghanistan and I foresee some heated debated over Eikenberry's authority to manage troops on the battlefield.