AfPak: an overview of Pakistan / Afghanistan

[davidbfpo]

Valin,

This topic has featured in SWJ before and I am aware that some in the USA (inside the Beltway) see a united Pashtunistan state as a solution. Personally I think it is a pipedream and does not help now. Would such a state be stable and resist the Jihad? Today, very unlikely.

Previous threads: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...t=pashtunistan , slightly more cultural: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...t=pashtunistan and older: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...t=pashtunistan

davidbfpo

[Valin]

Valin,

This topic has featured in SWJ before and I am aware that some in the USA (inside the Beltway) see a united Pashtunistan state as a solution. Personally I think it is a pipedream and does not help now. Would such a state be stable and resist the Jihad? Today, very unlikely.

Previous threads: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...t=pashtunistan , slightly more cultural: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...t=pashtunistan and older: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...t=pashtunistan

davidbfpo

Thanks. Just throwing out simple ideas
Simple ideas are my speciality

[tequila]

Pashtunistan is like Kurdistan (an artificial political construction unacceptable to every country with which it would share a border), but without the established Kurdish political infrastructure.

Whose pipe dream would it even be? Can anyone name a major Pashtun political figure, or even two, who can genuinely mobilize a broad consensus of the Pashtun population on either side of the border?

[Entropy]

Well, I for one agree and am concerned about a strategy/policy where our ability to achieve success in Afghanistan is contingent upon Pakistan having the will and means to do what we think they need to do.