The Taliban constitutes a long term threat to Pakistan. Let us assume that there are no foreign troops in Afghanistan, and the Taliban take over (extremely unlikely as Iran, Russia and India will oppose such an outcome). What does an extremely fundamentalist organization like the Taliban do, after it achieves complete control of Afghanistan? Does it rest on its laurels? It must logically look to convert neighboring countries to its way of thinking. There are those in Pakistan who will argue that the Taliban is in Pakistan’s pocket, and thus manageable. I beg to differ, as history has shown that once you create an organization of such a nature, there are always dire unintended consequences. Ask the Israelis in relation to Hamas (50,000 armed Hamas fighters waiting for the Israelis to attack Gaza—copying and developing Hezbollah tactics). The Taliban is a failed option that was cooked up by Washington saab in the Clinton administration, and Taliban have a soft spot for al-Qaeda, a poor choice of friends.
The Taliban should be dismantled and starved of resources. However Afghanistan and Pakistan should be working far closer with each other, and that some form of federated relationship between the two is not an impossible dream. It is a delicate task that should have been realized in the 1950’s, but for the lack of stability and long term planning from the Pakistani elite. That such a reasonable but delicate state objective was never intended to succeed in 1994 was all too apparent given that it was given the blessing of Washington saab, and even more ominous the fact that ‘pagal bacha’ fundamentalists of the worst sort were hired to carry out such a delicate task.
Afghanistan has an abundance of moderate rational leaders who are friendly with Pakistan, but instead a one eyed teacher was chosen with very questionable judgments/personality.
Choosing colorful characters for special ops in foreign countries is what Western intelligence organizations do, because they have a poor racist view of the Third World country within which they intend to use that colorful character. They feel that Third World countries deserve nothing better, in addition to being a male ego issue. Finally by electing a fringe character they feel they can control far more the outcomes than through a well balanced mainstream character (Gaddaffi—UK/USA 1969—homosexual psychopath with a very excellent sense of humor and theatrics—he amuses them…….endless list in many countries).
That certainly is not a view that should be followed or accepted by the Pakistani security elite about Afghanistan, a fellow Muslim country which is a blood relative in addition---Afghanistan should not be a play thing for Pakistan, it is a neighbor with many linkages to Pakistan. Yet we had Hekmatyar being sponsored by the ISI in the 1980’s, even though it was wholly apparent after a few years that he would be unacceptable to most Afghans after the Soviets were ejected, but the ISI plodded on with their star until they were hit by reality, and with the expenditure of several billion $ later. Inter Services ‘Intelligence’ hey? Than they went for Hekmatyar mark II---The Taliban? Inter Services Idiots is perhaps more appropriate.
For many of South Asian decent Afghanistan is a special country and we hold it dear to our hearts----it is our spiritual homeland that has provided South Asia with Kings, soldiers, administrators and cultural icons. Afghanistan is especially for South Asian Muslims indispensable, at many levels. So it is sad that foreign troops through the manipulation of events in the USA in 2001 with ISI/Israeli help, and in Afghanistan via Pakistan should now be occupied by foreign troops. They numbered 8,500 in 2001 and they now number 50,000, with calls for more to come into the country.
They have been there for six years, which for Afghanistan is a very long time. The foreign forces perversely state that they want to build up the country and bring normalcy back, but with each day more innocent women and Afghan children die by their thoughtless actions. I am happy for Afghanistan to return to its pre 1973 medieval slumber when they weren’t bothering anybody. We must find creative ways to persuade the foreign troops to leave Afghanistan asap, without the assistance of the Taliban or for that matter any other fundamentalist organization. Does Pakistan have moderate balanced (type of people you invite to your home without feeling uneasy) Afghans in their pockets, loyal to both countries? There has to be some.
Most alarming for South Asians who are historically aware is the fact that the British/Rothschild imperialists are back in the vicinity in force.
We are not talking about a few UN observers from the UK, but upwards of 7,000 troops fighting and killing Afghans of all back ground in the South of the country. It is a shocking and unacceptable scenario and I would have expected that SAARC and India with Bangladesh in particular in light of history (30 million starved to death during British imperial rule, with mass plunder and misrule) would have been a little bit more vigorous about this issue. But wait a minute Dr. Singh saab is Oxbridge educated and tears flow in his eyes when he talks about the Queen, and Bangladesh sends its best officer cadets to Sandhurst to be ‘finished’. So there it is.
