The mass media finally broke the story that the CIA has formed a special operations force, composed of Afghans, to operate across the border in Pakistan to collect intelligence and kill Taliban and al Qaeda leaders. This force of about 3,000 was never a secret to the enemy, or anyone spending time on the Afghan side of the border. But the CIA carried out an effective deception program, based on the fact that Western journalists rarely go to such dangerous areas as the Afghan/Pakistani border. Afghan journalists could be kept out, or any reports they published got lost in the numerous wildly improbably stories they normally publish. The full details of this Afghan force won't emerge for years.
It seems that they spend more time inside Pakistan than the initial report implied. When I wrote that we should do something just like this, we had already done it. But with our successful effort to keep this quiet (until now) I never heard about it.
I always wonder whether the military is doing something I think they should do, so it is nice to see that my instinct was certainly right. My main question is how much are we doing this inside Pakistan to help direct our drone strikes, that have increased in numbers and effectiveness over the last two years. How did they get more effective? Locals working with our CIA and special forces would do the trick. Again, this makes sense to me. If we are doing it, I hope I don't read about it for many years. Remember that in Vietnam we organize a whole lot more Montagnards than the current reports claim we've done with the "secret army" of Afghans on the border.
Defeating the Taliban in southern Afghanistan is absolutely essential to winning the war there. But it won't be enough. One way or the other, we have to defeat the Taliban on the Pakistan side of the border who support their Afghanistan brethren and help shield al Qaeda.
We should not send more troops to pacify areas inside Pakistan even if Pakistanis favored that. I'm uncomfortable enough having 100,000 US troops (and lots of allied troops, too) at the end of this supply line. Ideally, the Pakistanis do this job and we support them. At worst, we have to recruit our own "secret" army inside Pakistan to provide the surge to do the job.
