--- Mycos <mycos at shaw.ca> wrote:
>
> I'm at a loss as to why you would think that
> speaking of an
> American-led war against groups who oppose US
> foreign policy,
> something both sides themselves readily admit to, is
> an example of
> ethnocentrism. I mean, they are at the center of
> it, so...???
>
> Gary --- Canadian btw
> --
>
See, I think you're illustrating my point. You're looking at Afghanistan insofar as it relates to the US, and thereby missing that the Taliban were aggressively promoting war everywhere from the North Caucasus to Northern Iran to Western China. When the US (and it was actually a US-Russia operation BTW) eliminated the Talibs from power, they headed off a military conflagration that was threatening the entire area. This BTW is why Afghanistan's neighbors supported and continue to support the US morally and materially, not because of sillinesses like "Moscow allowed US troops in the 'stans in exchange for silence on Chechnya."
The Taliban: Exporting Extremism
By Ahmed Rashid appeared in Foreign Affairs, November/December, 1999
[Ahmed Rashid has covered the war in Afghanistan for 20 years. He is Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia
Correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review and author of The Resurgence of Central Asia: Islam or Nationalism? and the forthcoming Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia.]
Rewriting the Rules of the Great Game
"Talibanization," the destabilizing export of Afghan-style radical Islam, may be a new term in the American political lexicon. But in Central and South Asia, where the repercussion of the superstrict Taliban rule of Afghanistan have been widely felt, the word has become all too familiar. As political fragmentation, economic meltdown, ethnic and sectarian warfare, and Islamic fundamentalism tighten their grip on Pakistan and much of the rest of the region, the dangerous behavior of Afghanistan's new leaders is no longer a local affair.
More and more, chaos in Afghanistan is seeping through its porous borders. The ongoing civil war has polarized the region, with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia backing the Taliban regime while Iran, Russia, India, and four former Soviet Central Asian republics support the opposition Northern Alliance. The confrontation is producing enormous economic disruption throughout the area, as the Afghan warlords' dependence on smuggling and drug trafficking grows insatiable.
http://www.indianembassy.org/policy/Terrorism/think_tank/taliban_extremism_fa_nov_99.htm
ISLAMIC MOVEMENT OF UZBEKISTAN’S INCURSION ASSISTS THE
TALIBAN The Analyst, 13 Sep 00
Ahmed Rashid
The incursions from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan into the three Central Asian republics of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan by Islamic militants from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) are part of a wider strategic co-ordination with the Taliban and their offensive against the opposition Northern Alliance. Although the IMU has strategic aims to mobilize a Central Asian-Caucasus force of Islamic rebels and tactically to set up bases in the Ferghana Valley for a prolonged guerrilla war against President Islam Karimov, the IMU actions are also providing direct assistance to the Taliban offensive inside Afghanistan. The Taliban gained a major advantage on September 5 when they captured the town of Taloqan in northeastern Afghanistan.
BACKGROUND: The traditional Taliban summer offensive against the Northern Alliance forces led by Ahmad Shah Masud began on July 1, with two attempts to push back Masud's forces north of Kabul and clear the Bagram valley. Both attempts failed and the Taliban since late July concentrated on capturing Taloqan, the headquarters of the Northern Alliance. The Taliban swept up strategic towns along Afghanistan's border with Tajikistan, thereby cutting most but not all of Masud's links with his supply base in southern Tajikistan. For six weeks the Taliban launched repeated attacks against Taloqan taking heavy casualties and finally capturing it on the night of September 5. The loss of Taloqan deprives Masud of all his supply links with southern Tajikistan, the last airport in the country under his control, his political capital and created a huge refugee crisis with more than 100,000 people fleeing the Taliban advance.
http://www.omaid.com/english_section/in_the_press/uzbekRebelsTalib_aRashid_Sep13.htm
Ahmed Rashid. China forced to expand role in Central Asia
Uyghur militants are acquiring much wider connections to the world-wide Jihad movement than ever before, forcing Beijing to cast an equally wide net to contain them. China has no option but to become a major player in Central Asia due to this rising tide of Uyghur unrest in Xinjiang province, along with security threats along its long and porous borders with three Central Asian republics, weapons and drug smuggling, and Islamic militancy from Taliban controlled Afghanistan. China's regional partner in this drive for security is likely to be Iran, rather than its long time ally Pakistan, Russia or the United States. An increased Chinese military and political presence in the region will further complicate the Great Game of influence in Central Asia.
BACKGROUND: President Jiang Zemin's visits to Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, his participation in the Shanghai Five summit meeting in Dushanbe, and the hard hitting Dushanbe Declaration to which China signed on demonstrates a new and more expansive Chinese foreign policy in the region. Only two weeks earlier, Iranian President Mohammed Khatami's visited China and was allowed an unprecedented visit to Xinjiang’s Islamic mecca Kashgar - the first foreign Muslim leader privileged to visit volatile Xinjiang. Despite China's repressive campaign against the Uyghurs and Iran's previous foreign policy of supporting oppressed Muslims everywhere, Khatami chose to praise Chinese policies in Xinjiang.
http://www.iicas.org/english/enlibrary/libr_26_7_00_1.htm
The Islamic Republic of Iran harbors especially deep suspicions of the Taliban. First, deep doctrinal differences divide the religious leaderships in the two countries. Second, a Taliban-led Afghanistan adds to Iran's sense of encirclement by hostile Sunni states. Finally, the Taliban's treatment of Shi'ite minorities in Afghanistan arouses alarm in Tehran. Divisions exist within Iran about whether to engage the Taliban directly or to continue covert support for Hezb-i-Wahdat (the Unity Party), the largely Shi'ite umbrella party fighting to overthrow the Taliban. Recent border skirmishes between Iran and Afghanistan highlight the real potential for an expansion of tensions to a wider, interstate war.
http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/early/sr_afghan.html
Taliban send troops to Chechnya
DAWN, Feb.1, 2000
KABUL, Jan 31: Taliban troops have gone to Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya to provide reinforcements for beleaguered Chechen guerillas, a senior Taliban commander said on Monday.
Leading the Taliban troops in battle in Chechnya is Maulana Dadallah, a one-legged warrior, who has a reputation in Afghanistan as a strong fighter, said the Taliban commander.
The troops left Afghanistan 20 days ago, added the commander, who has been a reliable source of information about the Taliban.
There have been no reports in Russia of Taliban troops
arriving in Chechnya.
The Taliban's Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil said on Monday that it was the Muslim world's shame that it did not support Chechnya.
"They are my brothers. The only solution is to help the Chechens," Muttawakil said. However, he did not confirm that the Taliban had sent fighters to the ravaged Russian republic. "They are not terrorists; they are fighting for their freedom," said Muttawakil. -AP
http://www.rawa.org/chechnya.htm
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
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