One of these tribes is not like the other: Differences between Iraq and Af’stan
A friend comments on some of the differences between Afghan tribes and those in Iraq: Iraq Tribes: Obviously Hierarchical Easily Mappable Ordered Objective Hierarchy Pashtun Tribes: Not Obviously Hierarchical Not Easily Mappable Not Necessarily Ordered Subjective Hierarchy Tom again: His interpretation of what this means is that Petraeus got it wrong when he tried to ...
A friend comments on some of the differences between Afghan tribes and those in Iraq:
Iraq Tribes:
Obviously Hierarchical Easily Mappable Ordered Objective Hierarchy
A friend comments on some of the differences between Afghan tribes and those in Iraq:
Iraq Tribes:
- Obviously Hierarchical
- Easily Mappable
- Ordered
- Objective Hierarchy
Pashtun Tribes:
- Not Obviously Hierarchical
- Not Easily Mappable
- Not Necessarily Ordered
- Subjective Hierarchy
Tom again: His interpretation of what this means is that Petraeus got it wrong when he tried to apply Iraq to Afghanistan — and that al Qaeda got it wrong when it tried to apply Afghanistan to Iraq:
One of the reasons that bin Laden and the other Arab Afghans were able to work their way into the local Pashtu networks is because there the hierarchical power is not transmitted by descent type of kinship arrangements. When these guys tried to export the model to Iraq, specifically in Anbar, but also in Sunni enclaves that were more tribal in other places, all they did was piss off the actual guys with authority — the sheikhs. And because so much of tribal/familial and religious leadership is combined in Iraq, they managed to piss off two institutions at once: the tribal and the religious leadership at the same time. And there are almost no purely Sunni or Shi’a tribes in Iraq. So the anti-Shi’a message, combined with not understanding the societal dynamics, cost them. It wasn’t the only reason that the tribal guys wanted to come in from the cold, but it was a contributing factor.
More from Foreign Policy

Is Cold War Inevitable?
A new biography of George Kennan, the father of containment, raises questions about whether the old Cold War—and the emerging one with China—could have been avoided.

So You Want to Buy an Ambassadorship
The United States is the only Western government that routinely rewards mega-donors with top diplomatic posts.

Can China Pull Off Its Charm Offensive?
Why Beijing’s foreign-policy reset will—or won’t—work out.

Turkey’s Problem Isn’t Sweden. It’s the United States.
Erdogan has focused on Stockholm’s stance toward Kurdish exile groups, but Ankara’s real demand is the end of U.S. support for Kurds in Syria.