Taliban's gonna win Ya'll...

[Doncorelone]

Because that type of fanatic shit doesn't usually stop within the borders.

Plus it's a myth, the ISI heavily funded the Taliban against the Northern Alliance.

[The Dharma Bum]

That's not fanaticism, that's honour. Of course the tale may be a myth, but it seems to be one of the only pieces of information we have about the guy so I don't know about that status.

The fact that intelligence agencies manipulate indigenous populations is nothing new. Perhaps our problem is with the ISI of Pakistan and their like and not the Pashtun people themselves.

Ultimately what it comes down to is we are invading that entire region, and the people who are supposedly our allies like Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or Turkey are only co-operating with our efforts in the most superficial way while surreptitiously resisting our domination through the use of decentralized covert agency ie proxy groups (so called asymmetric warfare). We ought to consider that before we go all in with a large ground force to someplace like Iran because if our allies turned on us while we are engaged in the interior and that force was cut off and surrounded they could change the game for the entire region.

[NAB]

For sure our biggest problem is with the ISI in that region.

While the Taliban started out as a grass roots type movement, the ISI quickly co-opted it and bent it towards their own needs. Pashtun needs. Tajiks, Uzbeks, and such, need not apply.

[The Dharma Bum]

Yes, I agree. But just want to point out that the Taliban and the Pashtun people are not the same thing.

[eynon81]

[eynon81]

[eynon81]

[PoS]

Let the Taliban win. The reason they are fighting so hard is because we are over there. Our borders are pretty much secure and the only reason why the US is getting homegrown terrorists like the Boston bombers is because of what we are doing overseas. If we pull out they wont have any reason to attack us anymore.

[The Dharma Bum]

The Pashto have an ancient and venerable history as great warriors that goes much farther back than that. I think we have to lay the blame for that one at the feet of the British. Once again a greater power uses indigenous people to do it's dirty work.

Also, I don't think "homicidal hillbillies" is an apt description of them at all. If anyone deserves to be demonized for the imperial activities of the UK it's the British.

[eynon81]