Virtual Taliban state in Northern Pakistan.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
It sounds to me that the best plan would be to train the tribes to fight back to regain their lost territory, perhps even to use suicide attacks and other terror tactics.

In a fight suited for scorpions, get good at picking and training better scorpions.

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by notyoueither


In a fight suited for scorpions, get good at picking and training better scorpions.

Nah, use meerkats - they eat scorpions for breakfast.

[One_more_turn]

Perhaps we have to kill them all in the end.

Total War.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Question: would this have happened if the Bushies had kept the focus on Afghanistan -- instead of moving it to the back burner as soon as they could in order to pursue Operation Pointless Quagmire?

[dannubis]

I think so, yes...

Because the Bushies don't realize that as long as the Afghans have nothing to live for (no job, no education, no wealth, no future for their children, a feeling of being treated like second class human beings...) they will choose to fanatically protect the only thing they have left: their culture and religion.

But of course, the Bushies come from Texas and if things aren't blown up on a regular basis (and preferably in an increasingly spectacular manner) these people seem to loose interest pretty fast.

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
Question: would this have happened if the Bushies had kept the focus on Afghanistan -- instead of moving it to the back burner as soon as they could in order to pursue Operation Pointless Quagmire?

Christie's would be auctioning off pieces of the hangman scaffolding used to hang Osama bin Laden.

[Fake Boris]

Al Qaeda, with 10,000 fighters at most, is a meaningless organization when compared to the Taleban and their dozens of thousands. They have never been truly allied either and were suspicious of each other before the NATO intervention. Actually, it's this intervention that has incited different Afghan factions to join forces.
As for Pakistan, I wouldn't be so quick to blame then. What really happened is that after the Taleban were routed out of power, several officials criticized the shift from a fight for their own homeland (i.e. the virtual Pachtun kingdom) to a pointless guerilla against foreign troops. They ordered their followers to concentrate on the tribal areas of Pakistan - and, in large part, their success was due to the ridiculously weak NATO presence in Afghanistan which allowed them to divert nearly all of their forces from there. This put Musharraf into trouble, as his regime is not all that strong, Pakistan being multiethnic and having several areas vying for autonomy.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I doubt Bush is going to invade or even dramatically cut funding from Pakistan. The alternative is far worse than the current government. Fundies with nukes would be the last thing wanted.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DRoseDARs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Middle_East

Egypt is partly in Asia. Pakistan and Afghanistan are part of the Greater Middle East.

Point, set, match. What, are you Texan too like Slowwy?

wiki attributes the usage to W at the G8, and doesnt even provide a cite. And this is the site that had the gall to say Apolyton wasnt notable?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Zkribbler
Before U.S. intevention:
Kabul: Taliban
Most of country: Taliban
A few provinces: Northern Alliance

After U.S. interventions;
Kabul: Central government
Most of country: Warlords
A few provinces: Taliban

That's a marked improvement.

Its even a tad better then that, as the warlords in the north and west arent really independent, but owe SOME allegiance,IIUC, to the Kabul govt.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris
Al Qaeda, with 10,000 fighters at most, is a meaningless organization when compared to the Taleban and their dozens of thousands. They have never been truly allied either and were suspicious of each other before the NATO intervention. Actually, it's this intervention that has incited different Afghan factions to join forces.
As for Pakistan, I wouldn't be so quick to blame then. What really happened is that after the Taleban were routed out of power, several officials criticized the shift from a fight for their own homeland (i.e. the virtual Pachtun kingdom) to a pointless guerilla against foreign troops. They ordered their followers to concentrate on the tribal areas of Pakistan - and, in large part, their success was due to the ridiculously weak NATO presence in Afghanistan which allowed them to divert nearly all of their forces from there. This put Musharraf into trouble, as his regime is not all that strong, Pakistan being multiethnic and having several areas vying for autonomy.

Youre saying if there were MORE NATO troops in Afghanistan the Taliban would have left Pakistan and headed to Afghanistan to die? Why? You seem to think they have a bunch of fixed positions in Afghanistan that they defend - that this is like not enough western troops letting the Germans shift troops to the USSR. AFAICT its nothing like that at all - they are guerillas, they avoid strength and look for weakness. And from all Ive read AQ and the Taliban were closely linked pre-9/11, AQ being woven into the financial and security structures of the Taliban state. Sure their may have been frictions, as there are often factional struggles within states.

[Sava]

Virtual Taliban

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Ned
Did you intentionally ingore al Qa'ida?

Naw, al Qaeda was there, certainly, but it was there as the "guests" of the Talaban, which was the entity which actually controlled the territory.

[Ned]

But you suggest that somehow things are not better (for the world at least) with AQ gone.

[aneeshm]

As an Indian, I feel tempted to say, 'We told you so! That's what you get for trusting dirties like Pakistan!", but I won't, because this is very bad news for us, too.