I am doing my little bit on influential channels against the huge Indian presence, against the huge bias against Pakistan in the West, against the brainwashed Pakistanis, against the Afghans who blame everything on Pakistan.
NY Times is running this as a major story today. I am in the Comments sections.
Me:
"While it is always good to know both sides' versions, this conflict was inevitable because the Afghan Taliban regime's policies. It is not just Pakistan, the A.T regime have issues with all of its neighbors--all of them. I feel sad for the ordinary people of Afghanistan who have not seen any peace since the fall of King Zahir Shah in mid 70s. It seems like warfare has truly become a way of life for the Afghanis. I hope peace is restored in that region."
Yossarian:
""...the ordinary people of Afghanistan..." could have risen up and rid themselves of the Taliban but many of them chose to become part of the Taliban.As for Pakistan (which fathered these murderous religious berserkers) and the Taliban itself, they deserve each other. The current conflict is (please excuse my lack of empathy) poetic justice for both of them."
Me:
"@Yossarian You could benefit from reading Ahmad Rashid's seminal work 'Taliban'. Dated it maybe, you will see that the Afghan Taliban movement rose organically after the Soviets left and the movement was a counter to the warlords who were slaughtering each other right after the Soviets left. Pakistan decided to support one of those factions to bring stability and peace to the then Afghanistan, and that faction was the Afghan Taliban. If you think the Afghan Taliban are bad then you have not paid attention to the other factions in Afghanistan!BTW, religious extremism in Afghanistan was nurtured by not only the Pakistanis: Most of the Muslim world, Pakistan, and the Western world was part of that crime--which was done just to counter the Soviets in Afghanistan. Pakistan is not the only culprit."
Austen:
"It’s always been a way of life. The tribes there have been at war one way or another since before Alexander the Great invaded and founded Kandahar.When I was deployed there, the US Army found one of the easiest ways to prevent attacks on US positions was simply to pay the warlords not to attack. It’s kind of ironic, but, the tribal warlords over there are basically like US billionaires. They have no allegiances to flags, kings, presidents, or nations. They couldn’t really care less what the land they lord over is called on a map. What they care about is their own territory and their own power.So, to them, it didn’t matter if they were taking money from the Taliban, Putin, the US, or China. Sometimes they’d take money from *all* sides. And if the payments were late? They’d send a few mortars, rockets or IEDs into a mountain valley to remind the US why payments needed to be made on time.I do feel bad for the children of Afghanistan. Because that’s why the cycle of war hasn’t been broken for thousands of years. The only thing their fathers know is war. And they teach their sons war. Those boys grow up and teach their sons war and so on and so forth. And the cycle perpetuates on throughout the ages. For thousands of years."
a horse who was selfish and aanted ho become COAS but is now behind bars.
