Steven Pressfield on Afghanistan: ‘It’s the Tribes, Stupid’
Steven Pressfield: The “It’s the Tribes, Stupid” series launched just over a month ago. The first episode and blog entry laid out my thesis — that what we’re up against in Afghanistan is tribalism and the tribal mind-set. The comments started arriving.
Tribes, the Tribal Mindset, and the Enemy
Fabius Maximus was among the first to comment. He quoted the following from my post:
“What struck me most powerfully is that that war [Alexander's Afghan campaign, 330–327 B.C.] is a dead ringer for the ones we’re fighting today … the clash of East and West is at bottom not about religion. It’s about two different ways of being in the world. Those ways haven’t changed in 2300 years. They are polar antagonists, incompatible and irreconcilable.”
Fabius Maximus commented:
“Economist and businesspeople discuss the Competitive Advantage of Nations (as in Michael Porter’s 1990 book of that title). Social scientists and geopolitical experts discuss Samuel P. Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations theory. But Pressfield goes beyond these. In effect he calls for a long war. War between ‘polar antagonists, incompatible and irreconcilable’—perhaps running until one side is exterminated or conquered.”
Stop. Insert another blogging lesson learned: I never called for a “war between ‘polar antagonists, incompatible and irreconcilable.’” In fact, as my posts have built upon the original series, I’ve called for finding common ground.
