Afstan: Kim, the Indian Political Service, and today

Some references here, here and here--working for the Political and Secret Department. As for today, some thoughts from BruceR. at Flit:

...I'd still have to agree wholeheartedly with the "smaller footprint" part of the argument he's making. Greater integration of Western forces with existing Afghan security structures, even the ad hoc, tribal kind, is a must. Getting out and living with the people is a must...

...the guy's a fluent Pashto speaker, who seems to genuinely like the Afghans he knows, and has no problem foregoing personal security and creature comforts and sharing risk and hardships living among them. The real problem isn't that there's a Maj. Gant. The problem is that, for whatever reason, and despite years of effort, we don't have more Gant-types in the western military contingents in Afghanistan than we do yet to compare and contrast with him. We should have had a lot more people with Maj. Gant's experiences behind them by now... and if we had, I daresay we'd be doing a lot better than we have been...

Time, commitment and, er, local expertise. How many does the West have? We do now have overwhelming force, great logistics and good hearts though. Enough?

Earlier (and I claim no expertise, just a passing--if close--familiarity):

With Pathans

Much earlier, a brilliant book (more here) concerning a Political Department chap in the good old (bad?) days. Knew languages.