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 ...

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
#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 is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

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