I'm working on a quickie state of the war roundup, though other commitments are making it a tough go. Short version: the war is going badly, we're in serious trouble, and evolution into The Islamic Wars is going from about 33% odds in my mind to somewhere around 80%. Iraq? About to get worse, but doesn't even rate as our second biggest problem - and a good argument can be made against 3rd place.
I'll explain later. Meanwhile, all I'll ask is that you remember this little tidbit, and consider it potentially instructive on a few levels:
Protesters at the rally in Chaman shouted "Down with terrorism in Afghanistan" and "Down with the policy of interference in Afghanistan".
Yawn, another set of Islamists and their leftist allies mouthing the same old slogans. Uhm, no...
"Several thousand ethnic Pashtuns rallied in a Pakistani town near the Afghan border on Tuesday, accusing Pakistan of meddling in Afghanistan's affairs. The protesters, Pakistani Pashtuns and some Afghan Pashtun refugees, accused Pakistan of providing sanctuary to Taliban militants, who have this year unleashed the most intense violence in Afghanistan since their 2001 ousting from power.
"We demand the government of Pakistan stops playing its game in Afghanistan," Hamid Khan Achakzai, a leader of a Pakistani Pashtun nationalist party and a former member of parliament, told the rally in the southwestern town of Chaman. "This duplicitous policy poses serious danger to the entire world," Achakzai said.
There's hope in this little scenario - and it may not lie where you think.
I like the Brit version - tit bit. As in tasty morsel. I prefer sizes C and D.
Plays into the forever war bit. Why should the Paks get off the gravy train? Support both sides and get their money. Need to follow the money trail on this one.
The Hobo
Pakistan and Afghanistan fundamentally do not agree on where their border (currently the Durand line) should lie. Pakistan has, for decades, perceived its interest to be in a weak Afghan government and national identity and has, over the long haul, pursued those policies. Afghanistan has repeatedly attempted to reject the Durand line and promote cross border pashtun nationalism.
The US' position is that Afghanistan is wrong about the line and Pakistan is wrong about how it is defending the line. I'm not quite sure if this is sustainable and am very sure that it has, is, and will continue to twist our foreign policy in the region into pretzel shapes because we don't tend to discuss the border issue in these terms.
There is so much foreign interference in Afghanistan its difficult to figure what is really going on. india has been exploiting Afghans and Afghanistan for decades for their own nefarious designs against Pakistan, while at the same time subjugating their own Muslim minorities in india. Russia have tried on several occasions to exert their influence there. Britain failed in the past to subjugate these people and left the region by dividing the Pashtun(Afghan) tribes of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Now the country has attracted the interest of the US, which just a few decades ago, founded, funded and trained many of the very same militant groups/organizations now wreaking havoc in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Interestingly, rather than acknowledging their creation, the whole world and the US blame Pakistan, something any logical analyst knows, that it couldnt have done on its own without America's help. Peace needs to be maintained more importantly in Pakistan and the future will most likely entail the eventual formation of a confederation between Afghanistan and Pakistan in order for them to fulfill their potential as successful nations, bring about regional stability, rejoin the divided Pashtun tribes while balancing them out with other ethnic groups(Tajik, Pashtuns, Uzbek, hazara, Sindhi, Kashmiri etc...) The international community should help these two countries realize their potential and work to improve relations between these two siblings for their own greater good and the greater good of the world community at large.