12. See, for example, Action Memo from Steven Casteel (Senior Adviser to the Iraq Ministry of Interior) to L. Paul Bremer (Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority), Ransom Payments for Hostages, April 21, 2004. According to the memo, the Japanese government paid $750,000 per hostage for the release of three Japanese hostages captured on April 8, 2004, near Fallujah, and the French government paid $600,000 for the release of journalist Alexandre Jordanov.
13. Letter from L. Paul Bremer (Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority) to Foreign Embassies in Iraq, Ransom Payments for Hostages, April 21, 2004.
14. See, for example, Ian Fisher, “Italy Paid Ransom for Journalist, It Confirms,” International Herald Tribune, March 22, 2007, p. 1; Peter Kiefer, “Italian Leader Faces New Attack on Prisoner Swap After Reported Death of Journalist’s Aide,” New York Times, April 10, 2007, p. A12; Massoud Ansari, “Taliban Funds Blitz on British Troops with Hostage Cash,” The Sunday Telegraph (London), October 14, 2007; Saeed Ali Achakzai, “Korea Pays Taliban $24m for Hostages,” The Sunday Mail (Australia), September 2, 2007, p. 46.
15. “Taliban Military Chief Threatens to Kill U.S. Captives.”
16. Lester Grau, ed., The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan (Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 1996); Grau, Artillery and Counterinsurgency: The Soviet Experience in Afghanistan (Fort Leavenworth, KS: Foreign Military Studies Office, 1997); U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, Operation Enduring Freedom: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (Fort Leavenworth, KS: U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, December 2003).
17. Statement of Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, Commander, Combined Forces Command—Afghanistan, Testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Washington, DC, June 28, 2006; Memorandum from General Barry R. McCaffrey (ret.) to Colonel Mike Meese and Colonel Cindy Jebb, United States Military Academy, “Trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan,” June 2006, p. 4; Operation Enduring Freedom: Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures; Opposing Militant Forces: Elections Scenario (Kabul: ISAF, 2005).
18. “The Rule of Allah,” Video by Al Qa’ida in Afghanistan, produced in 2006; “Taliban Execute Afghan Woman on Charges of Spying for U.S. Military,” Afghan Islamic Press, August 10, 2005; “Afghan Taliban Report Execution of Two People on Charges of Spying for U.S.,” Afghan Islamic Press, July 12, 2005.
19. Taliban Says Responsible for Pro-Karzai Cleric’s Killing, Warns Others,” The News (Islamabad), May 30, 2005; “Taliban Claim Responsibility for Killing Afghan Cleric,” Kabul Tolo Television, May 29, 2005. Also see the killings of other clerics, such as Mawlawi Muhammad Khan, Mawlawi Muhammad Gol, and Mawlawi Nur Ahmad in “Pro-Karzai’ Cleric Killed by Bomb in Mosque in Khost Province,” Pajhwok Afghan News, October 14, 2005; “Karzai Condemns Murder of Clerics,” Pajhwok Afghan News, October 18, 2005. Also see Antonio Giustozzi, Koran, Kalashnikov, and Laptop: The Neo-Taliban Insurgency in Afghanistan (London: Hurst & Company, 2007), p. 46.
20. “Taliban Threatens Teachers, Students in Southern Afghan Province,” Pajhwok Afghan News, January 3, 2006. Also see “Gunmen Set Fire to Schools in Ghazni, Kandahar Provinces,” Pajhwok Afghan News, December 24, 2005.
21. Afghan Islamic Press interview with Mofti Latifollah Hakimi, August 30, 2005.
22. Olivier Roy, Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, 2nd ed. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990); Ahmed Rashid, Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000); William Maley, ed., Fundamentalism Reborn? Afghanistan and the Taliban (New York: New York University Press, 2001).
23. Commander British Forces, Counterinsurgency in Helmand: Task Force Operational Design, January 2008.
24. Estimates of insurgents are notoriously difficult for two reasons. First, it is difficult to count the number of insurgents, since they hide in urban and rural areas to evade foreign and domestic intelligence and security forces. Second, the number of insurgents is often fluid. Some are full-time fighters but many are not. In addition, there is a significant logistics, financial, and political support network for insurgent groups, making it virtually impossible to reliably estimate the total number of guerrillas and their support base. These reasons make it more difficult to estimate the number of insurgents than to estimate the size of state military forces. On the Taliban numbers, the author interviewed U.S., European, and Afghan officials on numerous occasions throughout 2004, 2005, and 2006.
25. United Nations, A Review of the Taliban and Fellow Travelers as a Movement: Concept Paper Updating PAG Joint Assessment of June 2006 (Kabul: United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, August 2007), p. 3.
26. Amrullah Saleh, Strategy of Insurgents and Terrorists in Afghanistan (Kabul: National Directorate of Security, 2006), p. 2.
27. Mariam Abou Zahab and Olivier Roy, Islamist Networks: The Afghan-Pakistan Connection, translated by John King (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), p. 13.
28. Al Jazeera interview with Mullah Dadullah, February 2006. Also see, for example, “Taliban Spokesman Condemns Afghan Parliament as ‘Illegitimate,’” Sherberghan Aina Television, December 19, 2005.
29. “Spokesman Rejects Afghan Government’s Amnesty Offer for Taliban Leader,” Afghan Islamic Press, May 9, 2005.
30. See, for example, “Al Jazeera Airs Hikmatyar Video,” Al Jazeera TV, May 4, 2006.
31. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, May 2007, recorded DVD response to Agence France Presse questions. Also see, for example, Sardar Ahmad, “Afghan Insurgency Here for a Long Time: Rebel Leader,” Agence France Presse, May 6, 2007.
32. Parts of the video clip were released in such Pakistan newspapers as Dawn. See, for example, “US Can’t Stay for Long in Afghanistan: Hekmatyar,” Dawn (Pakistan), February 22, 2007.
33. The video clip was released in 2003. See, for example, Aileen McCabe, “Attack Seen as ‘Payback’ for Drug Raid,” National Post (Canada), January 28, 2004, p. A2. Hekmatyar’s comments were regularly anti-American. In an address to U.S. President George W. Bush, he noted: “You must have realized that attacking Afghanistan and Iraq was a historic mistake. You do not have any other option but to take out your forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and give the Iraqis and Afghans the right to live their own way.” Zarar Khan, “Afghan Warlord Splits with Taliban, Hints at Talks with Karzai Government,” Associated Press, March 8, 2007.
34. Roy, Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan, pp. 77–78.
35. Gilles Kepel, Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), pp. 141–43.
36. Author interview with Ambassador Said Jawad, August 24, 2007.
37. United Nations, A Review of the Taliban and Fellow Travelers as a Movement: Concept Paper Updating PAG Joint Assessment of June 2006 (Kabul: United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, August 2007), p. 4.
38. Author interview with Robert Grenier, November 6, 2007
39. See, for example, Zahab and Roy, Islamist Networks, p. 1.
40. The term salafi jihadist initially began to occur in the literature of the Islamic Armed Group in Algeria. See, for example, Alain Grignard, “La lit-térature politique du GIA, des origines à Djamal Zitoun—Esquisse d’une analyse,” in F. Dassetto, ed., Facettes de l’Islam belge (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: Academia-Bruylant, 2001).
41. Video clip of Abu Laith al-Libi, released in September 2007.
42. Zahab and Roy, Islamist Networks, p. 14
43. See, for example, Thomas H. Johnson, “The Taliban Insurgency and an Analysis of Shabnamah (Night Letters),” Small Wars and Insurgencies, vol. 18, no. 3, September 2007, pp. 317–44.
44. “Taliban Military Chief Threatens to Kill U.S. Captives.”
45. Saleh, Strategy of Insurgents and Terrorists in Afghanistan, p. 8.
46. “Religious Scholars Call on Taliban to Abandon Violence,” Pajhwok News Agency, July 28, 2005.
47. “Taliban Claim Killing of Pro-Government Religious Scholars in Helmand,” Afgha
n Islamic Press, July 13, 2005.
48. The Asia Foundation, Voter Education Planning Survey: Afghanistan 2004 National Elections (Kabul: The Asia Foundation, 2004); pp. 107–8.
49. Author interview with Ambassador Ronald Neumann, September 7, 2007.
Chapter Fourteen
1. The North Atlantic Treaty, Washington, DC, April 4, 1949.
2. Eric V. Larson, “U.S. Air Force Roles Reach Beyond Securing the Skies,” RAND Review, vol. 26, no. 2, Summer 2002.
3. Author interview with NATO military official, Kandahar, Afghanistan, September 16, 2007.
4. Douglas J. Feith, War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), p. 154.
5. Author interview with Daoud Yaqub, January 2, 2008.
6. UNDP, Rebuilding the Justice Sector of Afghanistan (Kabul: United Nations Development Program, January 2003), p. IA.
7. The Bonn Agreement (2001), article II, paragraph 2.
8. Author interviews with Carlos Batori, counselor and deputy head of mission, Italian Government, Kabul, June 22, 2004, and Colonel Gary Medvigy, Office of Military Cooperation—Afghanistan, June 24, 2004.
9. J. Alexander Thier, Reestablishing the Judicial System in Afghanistan (Stanford, CA: Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, Stanford University, September 2004), p. 13.
10. Feith, War and Decision, pp. 153–55.
11. World Bank, Governance Matters 2007: Worldwide Governance Indicators, 1996–2006 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007).
12. Transparency International, Corruption Perceptions Index 2007 (Berlin, Germany: Transparency International, 2007).
13. World Bank, Governance Matters 2007.
14. Author interview with Daoud Yaqub, January 2, 2008.
15. Author interview with Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, October 27, 2007.
16. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1510, October 13, 2003, S/RES/1510. Resolution 1510 specifically authorized “expansion of the mandate of the International Security Assistance Force to allow it, as resources permit, to support the Afghan Transitional Authority and its successors in the maintenance of security in areas of Afghanistan outside of Kabul and its environs, so that the Afghan Authorities as well as the personnel of the United Nations and other international civilian personnel engaged, in particular, in reconstruction and humanitarian efforts, can operate in a secure environment, and to provide security assistance for the performance of other tasks in support of the Bonn Agreement.”
17. Hans-Jürgen Leersch, “Deutsche Soldaten werden im Norden Afghanistans patrouillieren,” Die Welt, October 16, 2003; Halima Kazem, “Germany Pushes to Extend Security Beyond Kabul,” Christian Science Monitor, October 7, 2003, p. 7.
18. Author interview with Lieutenant General David Barno, September 4, 2007; North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO in Afghanistan: How Did This Operation Evolve? (Brussels: NATO, 2008).
19. Map courtesy of NATO.
20. Author interview with Lieutenant General David Barno, September 4, 2007.
21. Anne Barnard and Neil Swidey, “U.S. Commander’s Background Considered a Strength in War with Iraq,” Boston Globe, March 27, 2003, p. A28.
22. Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez with Donald T. Phillips, Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story (New York: HarperCollins, 2008), p. 50.
23. United Nations Security Council Resolution 1623, September 13, 2005, S/RES/1623.
24. Eric Schmitt and David S. Cloud, “U.S. May Start Pulling Out of Afghanistan Next Spring,” New York Times, September 14, 2005, p. 3; Bradley Graham, “U.S. Considering Troop Reduction in Afghanistan,” Washington Post, September 14, 2005, p. A26.
25. See, for example, Eric Schmitt, “U.S. to Cut Force in Afghanistan,” New York Times, December 20, 2005, p. A19.
26. See, for example, Christopher Layne, “America as European Hegemon,” National Interest, no. 72, Summer 2003, pp. 17–29.
27. Elizabeth Pond, Friendly Fire: The Near-Death of the Transatlantic Alliance Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2004), pp. 56–62; Laurent Cohen-Tanugi, An Alliance at Risk: The United States and Europe Since September 11 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), p. 82.
28. Claire Trean, “La guerre contre l’Irak se fera sans le feu vert des Nations unies,” Le Monde, March 12, 2003; Luc de Barochez, “Alors que la date du prochain vote du Conseil de securité n’est pas encore fixée,” Le Figaro, March 11, 2003; “Paris rejetera une deuxième resolution au conseil de securité,” La Tribune, March 11, 2003, p. 4.
29. See, for example, the speech by Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier to the German Bundestag, Berlin, December 14, 2005: “Speech by Foreign Minister Steinmeier in the German Bundestag” (Berlin: Federal Foreign Office, December 2005). Also see Chancellor Angela Merkel’s objections to the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay in Jens Tartler and Olaf Gersemann, “Merkel fordert Ende von Guantánamo,” Financial Times Deutschland, January 9, 2006.
30. Henry A. Kissinger, “Role Reversal and Alliance Realities,” Washington Post, February 10, 2003, p. A21.
31. Patrick E. Tyler, “Threats and Responses: Old Friends,” New York Times, February 12, 2003, p. A1.
32. Ivo H. Daalder, “The End of Atlanticism,” Survival, vol. 45, no. 2, Summer 2003, pp. 147–48. Also see Samuel F. Wells, “The Transatlantic Illness,” Wilson Quarterly, vol. XXVII, no. 1, Winter 2003, pp. 40–46; James B. Steinberg, “An Elective Partnership: Salvaging Transatlantic Relations,” Survival, vol. 45, no. 2, Summer 2003, pp. 113–46; Philip H. Gordon and Jeremy Shapiro, Allies at War: America, Europe, and the Crisis Over Iraq (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004), p. 2.
33. Eric Schmitt, “NATO Troops Will Relieve Americans in Fighting the Taliban,” New York Times, December 31, 2005, p. A3.
34. Jason Beattie, “5,000 British Troops to Root Out the Taliban,” The Evening Standard (London), September 13, 2005, p. 8.
35. Doug Saunders, “NATO Chief Defends Afghan Mission,” The Globe and Mail, March 7, 2006, p. A12.
36. Author interview with Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, October 27, 2007.
37. UK House of Commons Select Committee on Defence, Thirteenth Report (London: HMSC, 2007), para. 46.
38. Author interview with NATO official, NATO ISAF Headquarters, Kabul, Afghanistan, September 15, 2007.
39. Judy Dempsey and David S. Cloud, “Europeans Balking at New Afghan Role,” International Herald Tribune, September 14, 2005, p. 1.
40. UK House of Commons Select Committee on Defence, Thirteenth Report, para. 43.
41. German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Compagnia di San Paolo (Italy), Transatlantic Trends: Key Findings 2007 (Washington, DC: German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Compagnia di San Paolo, 2007), p. 33.
42. Author interview with General Markus Kneip, September 6, 2006.
43. John D. Banusiewicz, “National Caveats’ Among Key Topics at NATO Meeting,” American Forces Press Service, February 9, 2005.
44. Author interview with Ambassador David Sproule, January 10, 2007.
45. Author interviews with senior German military officials in Mazar-e-Sharif and Kunduz, September 6–7, 2006; September 2007.
46. Memorandum from General Barry R. McCaffrey (ret.) to Colonel Mike Meese and Colonel Cindy Jebb, United States Military Academy, “Trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan,” June 2006, p. 4.
47. Quoted in Hy S. Rothstein, Afghanistan and the Troubled Future of Unconventional Warfare (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2006), p. 111.
48. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, Statement to the House Armed Services Committee, December 11, 2007.
49. Peter Spiegel, “Gates Says NATO Force Unable to Fight Guerrillas,” Los Angeles Times, January 16, 2008, p. A1.
50. David Galula, Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice (St. Petersburg, FL: Hailer Publishing, 2005), p. 77.
51. The clear, hold, and expand section draws extensively from Joseph
D. Celeski, Operationalizing COIN, JSOU Report 05–2 (Hurlburt Field, FL: Joint Special Operations University, 2005).
52. Celeski, Operationalizing COIN.
53. Colonel Bruce Burda, Operation Enduring Freedom Lessons Learned (Hurlburt Field, FL: Air Force Special Operations Command, 2003).
54. Author interview with Western ambassador, Kabul, Afghanistan, September 13, 2007.
55. Author interviews with Canadian soldiers, Kandahar, Afghanistan, September 16–19, 2007. See also, for example, United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, A Review of the Taliban and Fellow Travelers as a Movement: Concept Paper Updating PAG Joint Assessment of June 2006 (Kabul: United Nations, August 2007).
56. Author interview with senior NATO military official, Kandahar, Afghanistan, September 16, 2007.
57. Letter from Paddy Ashdown to Gordon Brown and David Miliband, December 2007.
58. Author interview with Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, October 27, 2007.
Chapter Fifteen
1. Rudyard Kipling, Verses, 1889–1896, vol. 11 (New York: Charles Scribner, 1899), p. 79.
2. “Enemy Assault on North OP in VIC BCP 213 Shkin,” U.S. After Action Report, September 22, 2005. I interviewed one of the U.S. officials present at Shkin that night (he wished to remain anonymous) on February 7 and February 11, 2007. I also interviewed nearly a dozen U.S. soldiers with similar reports along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border in 2006, 2007, and 2008.
3. Author interview with senior officer, 82nd Airborne Division, March 7, 2008.
4. Quoted in Mohammad Yousaf and Mark Adkin, Afghanistan—The Bear Trap: The Defeat of a Superpower (Havertown, PA: Casemate, 2001), p. 20.
5. PBS Frontline, “The Return of the Taliban,” Written, Produced, and Reported by Martin Smith, Airdate: October 3, 2006.
6. On U.S. aid to Pakistan, see C. Christine Fair and Peter Chalk, Fortifying Pakistan: The Role of U.S. Internal Security Assistance (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2006); Craig Cohen and Derek Chollet, “When $10 Billion Is Not Enough: Rethinking U.S. Strategy toward Pakistan,” Washington Quarterly, vol. 30, no. 2, Spring 2007, pp. 7–19.
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