Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Waziristan IV: Trying to imagine an American version of the frontier scouts

Could we put together a force in Afghanistan similar to the British-organized Frontier Scouts? I wonder. It would take patience. And imagine the regular Army’s reaction to this image, offered by Roe in his book on Waziristan: The men wore loose khaki shirts outside baggy Muslim trousers and on their heads a small, tight turban ...

#PACOM/flickr
#PACOM/flickr
#PACOM/flickr

Could we put together a force in Afghanistan similar to the British-organized Frontier Scouts? I wonder. It would take patience. And imagine the regular Army's reaction to this image, offered by Roe in his book on Waziristan:

Could we put together a force in Afghanistan similar to the British-organized Frontier Scouts? I wonder. It would take patience. And imagine the regular Army’s reaction to this image, offered by Roe in his book on Waziristan:

The men wore loose khaki shirts outside baggy Muslim trousers and on their heads a small, tight turban wound round a skull cap. In order not to stand out from their men, ‘the Scout officers … were dressed in the same manner as their men, even to the turbans, though they carried automatics, commando knives and walking-sticks instead of rifles and bayonets.’"

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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