US Intelligence anti-corruption push: A Taliban God-send gift!

Danger-Room/ here

".... Counterinsurgency is all about getting people to support the local government. That’s hard to do, if the perception is that those officials are on the take. But the approach comes with risks, too. One U.S. special operations officer, for instance, worries that “from an enemy propaganda perspective, this report would seem to be a bonanza.”

“First, the U.S. and NATO allies seem to admit that the Afghan government lacks legitimacy since it is ripe with graft. Second, the U.S. military is likely to be perceived as ‘policing’ the Afghan government and others (security forces and contractors) which thirdly would seem to confirm the enemy propaganda that the U.S. and NATO are occupying forces with the Afghan government merely a puppet regime,” the officer e-mails Danger Room. That “reinforc[es] the Taliban’s legitimacy to conduct an insurgency to rid its nation of an occupying power(s).”

Of course, we have to ask ourselves: Are we really capable of ridding Afghanistan of graft? How long is it going to take? And what kind of government and society can result after what would seem to take some generations to change? I wonder if this is the road we want to go down…

I think we we could and should help the Afghan government to police itself by providing assistance and support in the background and allowing them to find the corrupt officials and use their laws to police themselves (thus reinforcing good governance). But should we be publicizing our support to such an effort?

The anti-corruption push could be beneficial for Taliban operations, too. “Intelligence resources that are going against Afghan government officials, security forces, and contractors are diverted from tracking insurgent networks,” the officer adds. “If I were advising the Taliban, I would have the underground and auxiliary focus on helping this process and providing information that will target Taliban opposition political leaders caught up in the anti-corruption ‘purges’ which are likely to take place.”

All true. But it’s just as true that U.S. forces can’t just look away when their Afghan “partners” are pulling parasite moves on the people they’re supposed to be helping. It’s yet another Catch-22 in a war full of them.