Could sticks and knives drive Taliban out of Afghanistan?

[arnisador]

I saw this article listed on Yahoo!'s main page, titled "Could sticks and knives drive Taliban out of Afghanistan?":


To fight Taliban, US eyes Afghan tribes (http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081016/ts_csm/otribes)



With sticks, knives, and 600 men drawn from his own tribe, Hajji Malik Zahir did what the armies of Afghanistan and America could not: He drove the Taliban from his district.

Once again I amazed at how useful these "primitive" weapons continue to be in so many parts of the world!

[tellner]

In a word "No".

Repeating firearms are readily available. They rule the battlefield even when the battlefield is the village. Every grown man and most boys has one. And it's not like people don't have knives. Afghanistan is the land of the curved knife hillbilly. Anyone who wants one already has one and knows how to use it.

You're suffering from dreams of glory here.

[arnisador]

Every grown man and most boys has one.

Are they really that common there?