On Sun, Dec 13, 2009 at 9:16 PM, Shane Mage <shmage at pipeline.com> wrote:
>
> On Dec 13, 2009, at 6:41 PM, dredmond at efn.org wrote:
>
>>
>> The war on Afghanistan isn't being lost, it is *already* lost. The Afghans
>> will not accept foreign rule, and that's that.
>>
>
>
> There's no such thing as a "war on Afghanistan," not least because
> "Afghanistan" is a cartographical fiction, not a reality. The war is "on"
> Pashtunistan, which does not exist on maps but does in reality. Obama calls
> it "epicenter." He talks about "stabilizing Afghanistan" when what he means
> is stabilizing *Pakistan*. The circle he is trying to square is that the
> Pashtun will never accept foreign rule but half of Pashtunistan is
> ruled--hitherto nominally--by a foreign country, Pakistan. Since that
> status quo has now become militarily untenable for the US forces, the Paks
> have been forced into trying to actually control their half ("tribal areas")
> of Pashtunistan--and that is very destabilizing.
>
> The solution is obvious and presently impossible even to mention publicly:
> territorial reorganization of the area into three states--a rump
> Central-Asian Afghanistan, tribal Pashtunistan without the presence of a
> single foreign soldier, and a rump Pakistan. The Pashtun tribal elders,
> responsible for maintaining the livelihood of their people, would have no
> use for young jihadist fanatics anxious to provoke foreigners across the
> borders into massacring Pashtuns again. The Taliban would just collapse as
> all the adults it has under arms return home.
>
> It may be that Obama recognizes this, and hopes that his 100,000+ armada
> will be able to exert enough pressure on Pakistan that a solution becomes
> thinkable by his two-year "deadline." I suspect that might be the case
> because he is surely not stupid enough to think that his catch phrase
> "epicenter of global terrorism" makes any sense unless it is translated back
> into Pashtun. If so, I don't think his gambit will work because the Paks
> will not give up their "strategic space" without a firm political settlement
> with India and the Indians have no intention whatsoever of making any
> concession to Kashmiri self-determination, without which no political
> settlement with Pakistan is conceivable.
>
> No wonder Obama has aged ten years in ten months!
>
> Shane Mage
>
> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
>> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
>> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>>
>> Herakleitos of Ephesos
>>
>
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