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Subject: What are the Afghans
BD    6/21/2011 8:19:06 AM
I ask this question about this polyglot people because when I see some of the opinions voiced by those who are against the mission I often get the idea that the Afghans are little more than animals. A people maintaining a subsistence living while constantly fighting over the scraps available to them. This living often involves some degree of illegal activity, such as drug trafficking, to boot. However, unlike America, I know there were a collection of lands that were loosely defined as Afghanistan going back to the time of Alexander. I know prior to the Russian invasion there was some but not the present degree of drug cultivation. I believe the Helmund river valley was known primarily for its orchids not drugs. With the Russian invasion outside the circle of people willing to submit to soviet authority, the margin of survival became very narrow. After the soviet defeat root was given to a social structure that supported these types of activities partially due to our abandonment of the Afghan people and also to the exploitation by the Pakistanis of different motivations. Among these motivations are within the staff rooms of the Pakistani intelligence services and Chiefs of staff who fear strategic encirclement by India. Also in the Madrassa's and Mosques there is talk of the necessity of keeping Islam pure. Finally there is in subdued voices the need to keep the money flowing from the illegal drug trafficking that many people in many different positions of power in Pakistan enjoy as a result of the drug trade and is at the bottom, IMHO, of many of the activities that sustain this culture. The problem is this culture could be become a government as when the Pakistani Taliban almost took the Shot valley away from the central Pakistani government. The Pakistani's appear to have woken up to this threat but it is another matter if they can face the Greater Demon of their own corruption. If they can't and this dynamic is given space to fester than the world some day may be faced with what is essentially a nuclear weapons armed Drug Gang. The drugs on one side of the border support the corruption on the other and corruption supports the drugs. This is the cycle that must be broken and it won't, IMHO, by withdrawing troops from Afghanistan and giving free reign to this dynamic and allowing space to support the cycle from growing. We have been making progress and subjecting this cycle to attrition on the Afghan side of the border and we and the Pakistanis need to make more progress on the other side of the border.
 
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