"Pashtunistan?"

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WilliamPitt (4107 posts) Nov-27-01, 01:19 PM (ET) "Pashtunistan?" The specter of 'Pashtunistan'? NEW YORK http://www.projo.com/cgi-bin/story.pl/opinion/06605011.htm IN 1929, a bloody revolt against modernism replaced Afghanistan's King Amanullah with Bacha-I-Saqao, an ethnic Tajik. A few months later, a loya jirga -- or Grand National Assembly -- ousted the new regime and brought King Nadir Shah to the throne. That brief period represented one of the rare moments in modern Afghan history when Pashtuns did not rule -- and it failed. For more than two centuries, Pashtuns provided a ruling dynasty for Afghanistan -- a dynasty that from 1880 to 1980 succeeded in building a nation-state and modernizing it. Pashtuns are the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, and there are an estimated 20 million fellow Pashtuns in Pakistan. In 1893, the British tried to demarcate the border between British India and Afghanistan under the auspices of Sir Henry Durand. The Durand Line was considered by the British as binding, by successive Afghan governments as imposed, and by Pashtuns as meaningful as "a line drawn on water." In reality, however, the Durand Line turned out to be a profound dividing line in relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan. On the basis of its objections to it, Afghanistan cast the sole vote against Pakistan's entry into the United Nations. From its very beginning, Pakistan's policies toward Afghanistan have been anchored in its concern for Afghan championship and claim to an independent "Pashtunistan"carved mostly from Pakistan. Pashtunistan was to unite the Pashtun tribes of Afghanistan and Pakistan and provide land-locked Afghanistan with an outlet to the Indian Ocean. Beginning in the 1950s, the Soviets joined Afghanistan's call for a Pashtunistan in the hope that it would provide them with access to the Indian Ocean and the Indian subcontinent. In addition, the Soviets used their support for Pashtunistan as leverage to pressure Pakistan not to participate in U.S.-led and inspired regional pacts. India also exploited the issue of Pashtunistan, countering Pakistan's demand for a plebiscite in Kashmir with its own call for a plebiscite among the Pashtuns in Pakistan. ...more... "Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth - to see it like it is, and tell it like it is - to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth." - Richard M. Nixon READ THIS: http://www.usccr.gov/vote2000/stdraft1/main.htm   Alert Edit | Reply | Top

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Subject     Author     Message Date     ID    Rumsfeldstan or Bushistan is more like it SoCalDem Nov-27-01 1

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SoCalDem (3254 posts) Nov-27-01, 02:29 PM (ET) 1. "Rumsfeldstan or Bushistan is more like it" LAST EDITED ON Nov-27-01 AT 02:34 PM (ET) I have a feeling that the people who live there couldn't care less what their country is called. They are too busy trying to find food and shelter... These freakazoids are wetting themselves (ever see a more cheerful bunch??) over the prospect of keeping this "war" going , so they can use up all their old war toys and get the new ones tested.. Then there is the oil deal.. Once things are stabilized (about 7 years from now) they will all kick back and count the money... The people will still be scratching for a living, because there will be civil war for all eternity... Praise Allah !! Every time the "west" interferes and assigns arbitrary borders, there is conflict.. I cannot think of any post wwII country that has had a peaceful transition.. It's like someone comes to your home and TELLS you that those two back bedrooms are no longer yours..They now belong to someone you absolutely do not get along with and now you just have to share and be nice.. It would not be long before someone gets clobbered... Be sure to drop in and say hi at the daily thread in The Lounge "Dick Cheney-isms" On patriotism: "I had other priorities in the '60s than military service." -- The Washington Post, April 5, 1989 On ambition: "I set out to be a political science teacher. My years in Washington sort of got in the way of that, but it all ties in. What I want to do is political stuff." -- The Washington Post, Aug. 28, 1978 On defense: "Denuclearization is not a good idea." -- UPI, May 8, 1990 On the importance of education (specifically, his at Yale): "I flunked out." -- The Washington Post, April 3, 1991 "With free speech, you can gossip, criticize, attack and nobody is going to send you to jail"..g.w.bush 9/3/01 "...Ahm Gonna Wash That Thought Right Outa Yer Brain..".GOP Theme Song   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Top

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