Afghan Public Protection Force

The ANAP under a different name .
US-funded program to arm Afghan groups begins
Afghanistan creates anti-insurgency force

New Afghan Unit To Police ‘Insecure’ Areas

From BBC:

Labelled the “public Protection force” it is modelled on a traditional tribal group called the Arbaki. From a remote area in Afghanistan, near the Pakistan border, our correspondent, Ian Pannell, brings us the penultimate film in our Moment of Change series.

Watch this.  Notice all the Lee-Enfields and SKS‘s?

UPDATE: US plan to arm militias scares some in Afghanistan

Fahimi was one of several government officials and residents interviewed in Wardak by The Associated Press last week, all of whom expressed skepticism about the plan.

This being AP, a cynic might wonder how hard they looked for anybody who might express optimism about the plan.

Afghan war may enter new phase

Daniel Markey, a senior fellow and south Asia expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that basic counterinsurgency lessons from Iraq could be exported to Afghanistan.

“At the very, very basic level, the idea of coordinating — they are calling it community outreach — is probably the only way you could move relatively rapidly to counteract advances made by the Taliban. If you want to say that is the Anbar model, well sure,” Mr. Markey said.

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