Below is an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal describing recent efforts to enlist the local populations in ungoverned areas of Afghanistan to begin defending themselves in order to create the stability necessary for prosperity.
It is an interesting approach and has been met with enormous initial success. Any thoughts or comments are welcome.
"RABAT, Afghanistan—The men of this remote village, dressed in crisp beige uniforms and armed with Kalashnikovs, are defending their land against the Taliban, in a U.S. Special Forces-driven experiment that is set to spread nationwide.
New legislation, hammered out by American and Afghan officials and expected to be enacted by President Hamid Karzai in coming weeks, would authorize armed village forces across Afghanistan and bring them into the country's law-enforcement system.
The strategy, long advocated by U.S. Special Operations commanders, aims to provide a grass-roots counterbalance to the insurgents and fill a security vacuum in swaths of rural Afghanistan that .."
Obviously this is just an excerpt, Google has cached the full version (below link) and I have included the link to the article on WSJ which only displays a portion of the article but has a photo gallery available.
U.S. Enlists New Afghan Village Forces - WSJ.com
U.S. Enlists New Afghan Village Forces - WSJ.com