Bob's World:

Though you have not stated it as such, you seem to be inching toward the position that Taliban should be viewed as the proper representative of the Pashtun people and we should recognize them as such. Please correct me if I'm reading you wrong. I don't believe that Taliban & company can be viewed in such a way because they maintain their power at the barrel of a gun. They acquired power initially through violence and by professing to redress real grievances. They do pretty much the same thing now. But once they take an area by they maintain their power though violence and they inflict upon the Afghans things they don't want through violence. Their ability to wield this violence is critically underwritten by a foreign military entity. If they did not have the support of that entity, they would not have the power to impose their will upon others through violence. There are lots of dead Pashtun local leaders and dead Pashtuns who disagreed with Taliban and company's theology who might disagree with the view that Taliban & company speak for the Pashtuns. I can't agree that this violent minority can really speak for anyone but themselves.

You have also stated in the past that good governance will prevent insurgency. I think that is (I am going to get into trouble for using this word) naive. Good governance is one way to preclude an insurgency. Another way that works just as well, maybe better, is having a well organized, properly run and sufficiently violent police state; preferably one backed up by some kind of ideology (that is from Revolutionary Civil War by Wilkinson...I think). North Korea is a rather poorly run country filled with unhappy people, but there is no insurgency. They have a vicious police state that stifles any hint of insurgency before it gets a chance to start. The Soviet Union, Red China and any number of states were able to have peace within their borders for the same reason.

The Taliban & company are similar, very similar. When they take over an area they impose a police state, and they have a nice little ideology to back them up-God is on their side. Anybody living in a Taliban and company area had better toe the line or they will be killed in a most theatrical fashion.

Your statement "The question that must be asked is "Does the Pashtun populace see the Taliban as legitimate." Indicators are that more and more the answer to that question is "Yes."" ignores the effect that violence and terror have on a peoples outlook.

Your above quoted statement brings a further question to mind. Which part of Taliban & company are you referring to, MO's boys, Haqani's crew, one of the others or all of them?

You have decried us attempting to influence what kind of gov is established in Afghanistan. You have not decried the Pak Army/ISI attempting to influence what kind of gov is established in Afghanistan. I believe you have defended their attempts. Those are inconsistent positions. I don't understand why the west attempting to keep Taliban & company out is wrong but the Pak Army/ISI trying to put them in is not.