I have learned recently that the maps of the Afghanistan Cartography Office have better information on at least some matters than do the AIMS series.

However, it is important to examine any maps and to check them against other sources of information and to recognize the uncertainties out there which limit the accuracy of any maps concerning Afghanistan.

It is not clear who surveyed these Afghan maps and when they were produced and how they are being updated and corrected.

That said, because of Afghanistan’s unitary system, boundaries between provinces and districts have often been neglected. Now that a wholesale effort is being undertaken to invigorate sub-national administrations, establish budgets for provinces and execute projects through involvement of local councils, the importance of such boundaries probably will increase. And that presents major problems.

One key issue for Nuristan and neighboring Kunar is Ghaziabad district which Nuristan claims as part of Nuristan province. Another issue is the southern boundary of Nuristan province with Laghman province. (A significant portion of PRT Nuristan’s AO is regarded by local officials as in Laghman, even though on the AIMS maps its in Nuristan province.)

And then there’s, of course, the boundary between Waygal and Pech districts. The AIMS maps put Want and at least two Nuristani communities into Kunar. This probably was simply sloppiness and a failure to ground-truth the AIMS maps. Nevertheless, this has led to this misunderstanding about Want.

Should I learn how to obtain the Afghan maps, I’ll contact you.

But back to the Afghan maps,

You’re right that AIMS maps are of dubious accuracy—if you’ll notice, I said I have no idea how accurate it is, and that since the map they host is from before the 2005 realignment it could be different. After all, we’re talking about a couple of kilometers of boundary in an area where people barely recognize them anyway.

I also don’t doubt that Wan(a)t could very well be the DC of Waygal (nor, if you are who I think you are, is there any reason to question your judgment). Do you have any sources for this, like a map or a document? I’m not asking because I disbelieve you, but because I want to make sure I’m analyzing this through good data, instead of the best I can find. If you have any sources I could pour through, I would greatly appreciate it.

The AIMS maps are incorrect and those who rely on them for anything important do so at their peril, not only in Nuristan, but also in other parts Afghanistan.

Want is the district center of Waygal district, Nuristan province. NATO is wrong on this, whether outrageously so or otherwise is a judgment call.

My basis for making this statement is direct knowledge and experience.

The military deserves lots of credit for lots of things but not for being wrong on this.

There are ways of applying pressure on Pakistan. Threatening to cut off the billions in aid, for example, or leaning on China to pressure the government in Islamabad.

As for “outside influence,” in this sense we have to blame ourselves. We have helped the Pashtun belt look to the outside—to wealthy and militant Wahabists—for help whenever they need to mobilize and need money. While the Taliban groups aren’t quite the same, they are able to mobilize in part because of an appeal to nationalism (which is a noticable but minor portion of militants), direct funding (i.e. hiring people to fight), and recruitment out of the madrassas (which is probably the majority of the new fighters, all of whom are very young).

Again, we created these conditions. Which is why it is so important to understand the context it is happening in, and maybe even why Islamabad, no matter who is in charge, fears an all-out war with the extremists.

This is a great question.
I wonder, though, what could we be doing instead?
How could we push the Pakistanis harder, or better?
This is a tricky problem.
Does anybody have any good ideas on this?

I dunno, by all accounts from NATO, the attack took place in Pech, which is most definitely within the boundary of Kunar as it is a district. And there is indeed a village called Wanat in Pech (or Dara-i Pech, depending on the map) district of Kunar. At least, such a town exists according to AIMS‘ maps of the area before the 2005 district realignment. I don’t have easy access to a post-2005 map of upper Kunar, so I can’t say for certain that the town itself wasn’t later included within the boundaries of Nuristan.

But from the resources I have now, claiming the attack happened in Wanat, Dara-i Pech, Kunar, is not outrageously wrong.

Since this is, I believe, in the Waygal Valley (the areas where one finds Nuristani people is not the same as the boundary of the province), I think you still have a point.

Hell, the U.S. military isn’t unaware of the area, either: just under a hundred miles away, they accidentally bombed another wedding party in Kacu, Nuristan, killing something like 47 innocent people. I’m not into worshiping the Army by any stretch, but give them a tiny bit of credit here.

The fact that the Coalition press office can’t even correctly place Want in the proper province demonstrates how little situational awareness Coalition HQ has about its area of operations.

In Waygal there have been at least three other incidents of multiple casualty losses, two ambushes, one in August 2006 and another in November 2007 and also three soldiers killed in an IED attack in October 2006.

A few months ago, the bad guys nearly gained entry to a post called the Ranch House in Aranas which was further north in the Waygal valley by dressing up in ANA uniforms.

The people of Waygal valley are not positively disposed to the bad guys, but we lack an effective strategy to provide security to the people and to separate the people from the enemy.