Fear of a Pashtun state

ARTICLE: Pakistan's Pashtuns, looking for statehood, may look to Taliban, Christian Science Monitor, October 4, 2009

I don't think this pathway is bizarre in the least. As I've said earlier, I think some sort of soft border that allows for a Pashtun state is inevitable. The Durand Line is unsustainable because it's completely arbitrary.

If this is how we coop the Taliban, then I think we have a real chance.

Comments

[large]

If nothing else, this should prove to be interesting to watch . . A people who, for Centuries, have shunned central government, often individuals battling outside governments for their autonomy, and now . . are going to create a government (if allowed, apparently) in . . exactly, where?

[David Sutton]

Agree this will be a curiosity - for a race so fervently independent and suspicious of centralized government to seek that very thing will be interesting to watch.

What worries me is that a failure to coop the Taliban may mean that in fact their position is strengthened by an apparent bid for statehood and that we wend up with a proxy Taliban existing within a proxy Pashtun state. What then Taliban ambassadors in the Rose garden?

Great if its a moderate message they bring but I haven't seen a moderate tone in their language of late.

[Barekzai]

Let's be mindful of this:

"Pashtuns want an end to the Taliban, says Dr. Mehsud, but it should be Pashtuns who flush them out – not the Army backed by the US. "

...the Nationalist Pashtuns can not fight off the Taliban AND the Paksitani state on themselves. Eventually, they'll need support from their fellow-Afghans across the border......and American military assistance to that end may be viewed with less suspicion.