Afghanistan has a long history of independent, armed villages. After the overthrow of the Taliban regime, some Afghan tribal communities wanted to fight the remaining Taliban in their areas. They contacted US Army units in the field, asking only to be officially recognized as allies so that US pilots would not mistake their fighters as Taliban and bomb or strafe them. Afghanistan’s Local War lists several tribal groups that on their own initiative attacked the Taliban during that period.[13] Ideally, a CDF project should have focused on these people first and backed them fully as a confidence-building measure to influence other potential allies in the region สล็อต