First, ranmaniac, a very good and illustrative link on Chechnya and the disputes that has racked that small and strategically located country for the bulk of two centuries. And the fact that the Chechen people are hardly a a monolithic entity while various super powers use them like footballs.
But I will not stand idly by and allow palehorse to screw up Afghanistan with our taxpayer bucks while he pursues his own self appointed mission from God. Even if we accept the palehorse estimate that only 1% of the Afghan population is Taliban, that still adds up to 310,000 people that must be exterminated if we buy into the goal that extermination is the only solution. Add in the population of the Tribal areas of Pakistan and we are now talking much greater numbers. Exactly how palehorse will tell who is taliban and who is not remains a great mystery since they are ethnically the same people and we are talking ideas and not uniforms.
Equally laughable is the concept that the remaining 99% who are not Taliban love and support Palehorse&JOS as their hero's and saviors.
I do however agree with the ranmaniac statement that the "Afghanistan operation has been pathetically funded from the start."
The real question is what will solve the long term problem. Clearly a military solution is not working as a record of six plus years has shown. Once in a blue moon palehorse pays some lip service to the political and economic solutions that could totally discredit primitive type Taliban type ideas, HE CLAIMS WITHOUT ANY ARTICULATION to understand the many historical forces operating, and then immediately lapses back into his kill kill kill all Taliban mantra.
And I see the best solution as being a political and economic one. And the greatest blunder possible would be to widen this war into the tribal areas of Pakistan, where the woefully small Nato forces could only screw things up worse than they are now, replacing some semblance of order into a condition of
total anarchy. And anarchy empowers terrorists while weakening any occupying force.
Far from believing that Taliban are not a problem in Pakistan, I simply point out its a manageable problem for Pakistan. If Nato gets too aggressive, its going morph into a problem no one can manage. In my mind, Nato needs to stick to its mission of Afghanistan, Afghanistan, and Afghanistan. Your own link stated there are only some 800 border crossing points, 24/7 monitoring of those points by small patrols plus the ability to call in air support could shut down any cross border Taliban resupply without unduly straining Nato troops.
Meanwhile we all wait to see the stupid leadership of GWB&co fade into the sunset. And hopefully its will be replaced by a US government that will try to political and economic solutions in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. And if that is properly applied, even the Taliban itself will see that their own ideas have no real place in a modern world. As its is, palehorse type thinking is the greatest sales tool the Taliban has.
In a battle of ideas, the comic book thinking of JOS&palehorse are sure losers. And a lose lose lose for Afghanistan, Pakistan, and all Nato and US allies.