Quote Originally Posted by Old Eagle View Post
That's how it looks to many. However, that's not how it looks to the Afghans. Especially to the organization formerly known as the Northern Alliance. They will tell you flat out that Pakistan poses an overt military threat in addition to their safe haven role. NA guys quote reports of Paks manning Taliban tanks and flying T'ban airplanes during the conventional attacks on Kabul in the mid-90s.

In fact, for many of our interlocuters, ratbastardpakistani was a compound word.
Old Eagle, you are correct though. The Northern Alliance is who we enabled to prevail in their long struggle against Pashtun domination in Afghanistan, and they will do everything in their power to NOT go back to the way things were. Pakistan is not so much a threat to Afghanistan, but a threat to the Northern Alliance keeping the Pashtun's in a box.

News flash: "Pashtuns in a box" is perhaps the least viable of all the "in a box" concepts we have wheeled out in Afghanistan.

The real question is how do we move forward. The historic inertia of Afghanistan is one of winner take all, controlled through patronage systems that do not allow the defeated party to gain an upper hand. IMO we only enable this problem by our blind support of Northern Alliance biases and agendas, even if they are the current official government of the land.

This is why I push for more of an empowerment approach, that is more neutral and brings the parties together. But as I say, there is no precedent for this in this culture, and therefore no trust. How does one overcome the absence of trust? With good rules and a strong power to enforce those rules. The Good Rules are in a new Constitution for Afghanistan that shapes parameters that protect the rights of these various interest groups, of individuals, and also contains government in ways that prevent the government from becoming the tool of any one of those with an agenda that is counter to the good of the whole. The strong power to enforce is within the international community.

Currently we use that strong power to enforce Bad Rules in the current Afghan Constitution that are designed to sustain all power in the Northern Alliance. This is a position that assures continuous insurgency, because if ever there were a people who would never submit to being placed in a box, it is the Pashtuns of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Cheers,

Bob