The strongest tribe

Robert Kaplan (author of Imperial Grunts and Hog Pilots, Blue Water Grunts, among many others) writes this line in a dispatch about Afghanistan in the Atlantic:

"The side that wins here will be the one that emerges in the eyes of the rural inhabitants as the strongest tribe... "

Sound familiar?

Also, straight reporting and analysis of the administration's newly-announced strategy for Afghanistan at The Long War Journal.