Afghanistan has been a real victim of world powers’ short-term strategies that are often devised against their own earlier strategies. The newest strategy that the United States is working on is to bypass the central government in Afghanistan and directly support the Pashtun tribes to fight against the Taliban. According to a New York Times report, as a first step towards this end, the U.S. is going to support the Shinwari tribe in eastern Afghanistan. ‘In exchange for their [the tribesmen’s] support, American government agreed to channel $1 million in development projects directly to the tribal leaders and bypass the local Afghan government, which is widely seen as corrupt.’

For Afghans, this ‘corrupt government’ had full support of the entire international community for last eight years. A remarkable majority of the Afghans now question that if this government was so corrupt, why the U.S. and the international community let it run during all these years. Until now, everybody spoke about democracy, human rights, civil society, stabilizing the government, and capacity building. But suddenly, the track changed and now every prime minister, every president, every ambassador, every military commander, and every civilian expert speaks about reconciliation with the Taliban, bypassing the central government, and supporting the tribes. Now they see the solution in the centuries old corrupt and outdated tribal system that will now fight against the Taliban but eventually will turn into uncontrollable militias and then? the international community will undoubtedly devise another strategy to get rid of them.

It is true that this tribal system worked 30-40 years ago, but its authority and function was undermined by a same strategy that was also devised by the U.S. and Pakistan in which a new generation of the Afghan youths was encouraged to follow the jihadi leaders, well-trained and well-paid by the U.S., instead of the tribal elders. According to another New York Times report, at that time, ‘the United States, backed by the Saudi and Pakistani governments, unleashed its own assault on Afghanistan’s tribes. American-backed Wahhabi fundamentalism created hundreds of thousands of young mujahedeen (holy warriors) to attack Soviet troops in Afghanistan. Religiously indoctrinated and flush with American cash, these young Afghan fighters viewed Muslim clerics and mujahedeen commanders – not tribal elders – as their true leaders.’

Eventually the Soviet troops withdrew, but the tribal elders and system continued to suffer as the country descended into a new era of warlordism that annihilated every value of the Afghan society. The Taliban emerged as a result of that warlordism but further expanded the fight against tribal values. More recently, hundreds of tribal elders in the tribal areas as well as in Afghanistan and Pakistan were murdered in a series of target killings because they were believed to be supporters of the governments. Particularly in the tribal areas, many tribal jirgas and gatherings were targeted by suicide attacks in recent months.

The New York Times report correctly said that: ‘Some Afghans warn that the tribal system is not a panacea and fear that the United States is adopting a quick-fix approach that will not create long-term stability. They see the tribes inherently anachronistic, sexist and corrupt – a system that further undermines the already extraordinarily difficult task of creating multi-ethnic, merit-based institutions. They warn that the country would be thrown into the hands of myriad tribal militias that the central government could never control.’

So, instead of short-term and quick-fix strategies that create more problems in the long run, there should be a long-time commitment for stabilizing the government, promoting democratic values, human rights and civil society, reducing poverty, and working for capacity building in Afghanistan. That is the only way to a long-time solution in this war-torn country.