Perhaps the villagers revolting against the Taliban in Gizab, Afghanistan will have similar results as the Anbar Awakening did in Iraq.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...T2010070905635
U.S. eager to replicate Afghan villagers' successful revolt against Taliban
A mid-level insurgent commander attends a meeting of local elders in Gizab. After the successful revolt, he promised to leave the Taliban.
A member of the local defense force in Gizab, Afghanistan, patrols in the bazaar. Residents of this village formed a militia in April and drove out Taliban fighters. (Rajiv Chandrasekaran/the Washington Post)
Lalay's force has now grown to 300 men. They conduct foot patrols and operate checkpoints in and around Gizab. The revolt also has spread to 14 neighboring villages, each of which has a 10-man defense squad.
The Special Forces detachment that had been based to the north has since moved to Gizab, where its members are training the local defenders and watching over them to prevent any other extrajudicial killings.
Insurgent attacks and intimidation have ceased. "There are still Talibs in the mountains, but they're in hiding," said Lalay, who wears a bandolier slung over the shoulder. "They don't dare to come outside and fight us."
The insurgents who have emerged have sought to surrender. This month, a mid-level commander who was an assistant to the Taliban chief in Gizab district asked to be forgiven. "He told me he couldn't do anything else," said Ahmedullah, Lalay's brother.
But Lalay and other local leaders warn that the peace here remains fragile because of uncertainty about how his force will be funded and equipped. The Afghan government has authorized only a 53-man police force for the entire district. U.S. officials are working with the Afghan Interior Ministry to deputize the others as members of a "public protection force," which would enable them to wear uniforms and draw salaries. But Gizab leaders say the compensation -- $60 a month -- is not enough.
"It does nothing for our families," said Safiullah, one of Lalay's deputies. "When the people heard that, they said they'd quit."
For now, the police chief in neighboring Uruzgan province and the leader of a private militia there have sent money and weapons to the force, but Gizab residents also are waiting on a decision from the central government to allocate permanent funding for the force.
"Our people are getting impatient," Safiullah told Miller, the Special Operations commander, at a recent meeting.
"We're trying to push it," Miller said of the request for more money and equipment. "We're very anxious for it to happen, but we have to wait for your government to make it happen." end of page one.
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