This great op-Ed reminded me of the story of the #ISK director of recruitment being caught in a night raid. He used to work in a directorate of agriculture in Nangrahar during republic days and had hosted me at his office a few time. I got to know that he had been detained 1/
https://twitter.com/lynzybilling/status/1603510988979900416
A few months later I saw him walking around in my #Kabul office. Awkward about how to bring it up, over tea I hinted at the rumour of him being picked up in links with ISK and he told me the story. Muslimyar (Head of Senate) had sent someone to him to lease them gov arid land 2/
When he refused to break the law and give out the land, the person told him that he would regret it. The same night, a helicopter descended outside his house and the zero units put a bag over his head and flew him to Kabul 3/
It wasn’t until the next few days that he was taken to an interrogation room for them to see that he looked nothing like the person who they were told he was. He was kept in lock up as part of the process for a few days and then released. 4/
Most were not lucky enough to make it to detention or get released. The bad CT strategy made more enemies than friends. Maybe it was the reason that hearts and minds never worked later. 5/
The US formed and trained a killing machine with zero accountability that was abused by the local warlords and for anyone who had some access to use them for settling score. Now these same units, with little language skills, wonder what to do with their lives in the US. 6/
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