The Wall Street Journal’s Matthew Rosenberg (with aid from Yochi Dreazen) has a piece that I can’t recommend strongly enough: a profile of Gul Agha Shirzai, the
“„“I will go to all the tribal elders, the way I have done it in Nangarhar. And we will negotiate with the tribes who are supporting the Taliban,” Mr. Shirzai says, sitting in his bedroom at the governor’s mansion in the provincial capital, Jalalabad. “We don’t have to rely only on fighting and bombing and jet planes. That we use only for those people who won’t talk.”
“„Speaking with a handful of American military officers and officials after the March 5 security meeting, the governor said he was considering setting up village militias in districts of his province where the Taliban are strongest. The central government, with U.S. support, is setting up a similar pilot program in another part of the country.