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British forces should buy off potential Taleban recruits with “bags of gold”, according to a new army field manual published yesterday.
Army commanders should also talk to insurgent leaders with “blood on their hands” in order to hasten the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.
The edicts, which are contained in rewritten counter-insurgency guidelines, will be taught to all new army officers. They mark a strategic rethink after three years in which British and Nato forces have failed to defeat the Taleban. The manual is also a recognition that the Army’s previous doctrine for success against insurgents, which was based on the experience in Northern Ireland, is now out of date.
Originally posted by kiwifoot
British forces should buy off potential Taleban recruits
Originally posted by Dermo
reply to post by kiwifoot
The thing with the "Taleban" that people don't always realize is that they are not in any way your conventional enemy. They are generally just people looking for way to make money/to survive or to protect that they have been raised to believe is correct in Islam.
Their 'cause' is borne of necessity or ignorance/lack of education/business..
By approaching them and using small amounts of money to try and change their mindset towards the western forces or even to try and change their perspective on the changing world.. progress may be made without having to kill individuals who are simply too ignorant to know any better in most cases.
The Taleban are not terrorists or Al qaeda..
they are generally non related tribal groups
and only became insurgents since the IFOR forces showed up.
Its a hard one to call.. its possible in many cases that this money is going on weapons for the various warlords or creating a destabilizing effect on the region by enabling one group to become much stronger than the rest. Both could be detrimental or positive for the cause.
In any case.. they are so backwards in general, it is going to be almost impossible to modernize that country because of them.
IFOR was an International Force mandated for action in Bosnia exclusively and has played no role anywhere else!