I recognized the expalnation of the author of this article. here I just want to write this fact, that world are just looking for those events and attacks which accured in Kabul, Kandahar, Khost..., but in all those Pashtun based regions, there is full hateness against USA, NATO and ISAF. the local people include their tribal elders want peace, security, reconstructions,rehabilitations, schools, clinics, roads, potable water, sheltering and some other vital goods, but on other side Pakistan and its ISI send their agents under the name of Talib to destroy the above mentioned things and kill doctors, teachers, students, employees....

it is in this case that now local people along with their tribal elders are unsatisfyed from the government of Afghanistan and also from USA, NATO and ISAF. because the local people are showing the rebels to them,in order to catch them, but they never care of them and are saying that it is not our responsibility.

I disagree with your analysis.
You couldnt have been more wrong.
Pakistan viewed afghanistan as a 'strategic depth' that it could rely on.
FYI PAK in pakistan is
Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir. (no mention of
Bangladesh, Balochistan).
Pakistan still views afghanistan as a country which it can control.
It was pakistan which aided and promoted Taliban(not a pashto bent) Incidentaly in the prepartition india the NWFP north west frontier province did NOT want a partition.
Hell Congresss had asked nehru to run from NWFP in an election under the british and he won not the muslim league.
The tribal pushtoons wanted were cosmopolitan enough fo support a Hindu pandit back then.
You have simply ignored the mess created by pakistan, Saudi arabia and UAE in that region.
Steve Coll mentioned that prior to 9-11 BinLadens location was pin pointed and clinton administration did not choose action because Bin Laden came to afghanistan in a UAE military plane.
Most Afghanistanis are happier that Taliban is gone. Most are not happy that they still need US/Nato for security. But given the choice of US/NATO or pakistani backed fundoos most will choose US/NATO.

B"H [9/17/06]

I would like to send my article, "Torah and the Taliban", to all interested parties. It shows that the Taliban were not a "failed state" - that they wiped out opium growing throughout their domain largely by consensus of the elders: they weren't anti-women & they weren't anti U.S.
vantran613@yahoo.com. shalom/salaam/peace

I appreciate your analysis on the tribal traditions and their elders. However, what is missing is the fact that in the tribal tradition elders themselves are discredited and replaced by the member clans themselves. A good example is your own homeland, Somaliland. It is well documented that the Isaq dominated Somaliland clans led by the late former Somali Prime minister Mr. Ibrahim Eagal have opted out to break away from Somalia and seek international recognition. The tribal elders, some from Isak clans, others from the Harti-Darood clans opposed that decision by Mr. Eagal and similar minded polititians. What followed next is very well known. Mr. Eagal and his fellow mainly Isak politians used the old divide and conquer tactics. They have discrdited the tribal elders, funneled money within the clans in question and encourage self-interested individuals within that clan to challenge their elders who opposed the secessionist policy and replaced them with elders who will tow the line...The same reality exists in Taliban, Iraq and other tribally structured society. If for example the West tries to cajole the Pashtun elders of Afghanistan and the average Afghan brainwashed by the AlQaeda's un-Islamic extremist philosophy suspects that his elder is dancing around with Westerns, if that elder is not killed immediately, he will be discharge from his elderly position with great dishonor.
I see your anylasis sincere but misguided. The war of the terrorists must go on until the last terrorist is exterminated.
As you should know we now have radicalized Somali tribes with AlQaeda like philosophy. Allah forbid, if the Union of the Islamic Courts of Somalia defeats the fragile but democraticly elected Federal Government of Somalia then I guarantee you the horn of Africa and beyond will be engulfed a never ending un-Islamic war.
Always remember the so-called tribal elders' influence and leadership is not written on stones. They come and go and sometimes as in the case in your Somaliland the clan themselves rise up against their elder and replace him.

Excellent advice. I am totally confident it will be completely ignored by NATO and the US.

The US gave $3 billion in military aid to Gen Musharraf, Islamic military dictator of Pakistan. $1B of that will go to terrorist groups to fight India and the US. This wont make it to the front page or even page 40 of any newspaper. Economics governs politics. But the news is all words and no numbers. Continue the merry killing.

Thank you for the immensely constructive analysis.

The current US government appears to believe that destabilizing the world with terrorism, civil war, and endless interference in other nations' ways of life, will bring it closer to realizing its foreign policy goals.

Whether Nato will be able to counteract the US ways to rule by destruction, remains to be seen.

I agree with your analysis : Afganistan is normally like it is today . Every 500 to 700 years it unites and invades India .

My question concerns the production of drugs . This is new . Further it cannot be healthy for a tribal society . In fact highly toxic . I antispate the tribal elders are growing frantic to free themselves of this curse .

Assuming the Taliban is or can be linked to the drug trafficing : This might be the topic to begin our discussion with the tribal leaders .

I appreciate the clarity with which you describe this situation. The US, without real concern for the common people living on the ground, forces 'our' ideals on another nation. The locals are "fighting for their soil and for their tribal dignity". Our troops are fighting for new Coca Cola factories and oil pipelines.