The error of Afghanistan is far more serious than the error of Iraq. If the resulting insurgency is now exported to Pakistan, both errors will seem peccadillos. Pakistan is the sixth largest state in the world, and nuclear-armed. Full Story »
Posted by Derek Hawkins
This is an opinion piece by a journalist who has looked, learned, and spoken. He has it right. Until people realise that Afghanistan has never had a "strong" central government; that it always has been a country ruled by regional strongmen and tribal chieftains; that an ethnically-based civil war is underway; and that "Taliban" is simply a misleading label for a wide range of disaffected Pashtun, not an organisation or movement. Al Qaeda is largely irrelevant and remains in Pakistan, not Afghanistan. Afghanistan should be left alone to reach its own equilibrium.
