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There is no Afghanistan; there is only a collection of tribes.

So pick one tribe — the roughest of the bunch — and hire them. Give them all the benefits. They support your interests (because their leaders are getting billions for their Swiss bank accounts, and their followers are getting
all the good things money can buy).

They will be loyal as long as the paychecks keep coming.

But never believe that they are on your side; they are on their side, only.

So pick one tribe — the roughest of the bunch — and hire them. Give them all the benefits. They support your interests (because their leaders are getting billions for their Swiss bank accounts, and their followers are getting all the good things money can buy).

That sounds like the only thing that would work. Let that tribe know that, if ANY member of their tribe is caught outside Afghanistan committing terrorism, then the payments stop and we find another tribe to work with, unless the terrorist's whole extended family is put to death.

Meanwhile, if one of the other tribes has a member committing terrorism, then our paid tribe gets to raid the other tribe, kill most of the men, and take the prettier women.

Terrorism WILL stop, when the cost is decimation of your clan.

So pick one tribe — the roughest of the bunch — and hire them. Give them all the benefits. They support your interests (because their leaders are getting billions for their Swiss bank accounts, and their followers are getting all the good things money can buy).

I think that's Trump's tactic with Saudi Arabia vs. the rest of the Gulf states.

“So pick one tribe — the roughest of the bunch — and hire them. Give them all the benefits.”

This is the traditional CIA approach - install a strongman (preferably with a big moustache) whose economic interests align with American interests, and let him manage domestic security.

Prince points out that the Taliban currently dominate the big money-making elements of the economy there (like opium), so of course they are growing.

There is a fortune in minerals in Afghanistan which could finance security and prosperity (and fund a pro-American regime). They could be like Mongolia (jokingly called Minegolia), with their government funded completely by royalties on mining rights - if a strong government could enforce security, and get a railroad built.

That is a long term solution, but it is a multi-year effort. One factor that Prince does not mention is that even before Obama’s disastrous policies, the Bush Administration explicitly excluded multi-year development efforts.

We need a way to coax mining majors into Afghanistan, and that will require a local partner who can provide security. We need to ensure that whoever ends up providing that security is not anti-American, like the Taliban.