Re: They didn't even ask about the MESS in Afghanistan!...it's a DISASTER like IRAQ is becoming....
Well, I disagree.... The Afghan situation is not the same as Iraq. Actually, the aftermath of the US occupation of Afghanistan was already wrapped up BEFORE the first US troops landed in the country. It was a showcase of "prefab diplomacy" at work: Secr of State Powell easily secured a regional understanding (Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Russia), the former king Zaheer Shah (sp?) was thrown into the equation, and a consensus on Hamid Karzai as the next "boss" was reached even before he left the US.... And, of course, both the UN and NATO were given a piece of the action.
The reason why Afghanistan was a totally different kettle of fish lies with Russia: just like Israel was threatening to "nuke" Iraq, the Russian bully was on the brink of smashing Afghanistan the same way it did with Chechnya. But Russia is no Israel. Russia is not a settler colony whose 145 million inhabitants come from Texas, Florida, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Morocco,..., still hold passports of these aforementioned countries and fight with native Muslims over land and holy estates... Orthodox Russians don't plan to settle in Afghanistan and they don't plan to build a basilica in Kabul! Moreover, although Russia is strapped and needs foreign loans, her lifeline doesn't boil down to US loan guarantees and private, tax-exempt donations.... Putin doesn't travel every month to Washington to explain his policy and cheer up the "Russian lobby".....
But the major difference is that Afghanistan is not linked to the Palestinian issue. Somehow, Afghanistan is a self-contained conflict, basically the stage of a secular tug-of-war between Russia and Pakistan --hence my parallel with 1939 Poland and her carve-up by Germany and the USSR.
Accordingly, US and NATO troops present in Afghanistan are not considered as Crusaders, if only because there isn't a single mention of Afghanistan in the Bible! The (geo)political compromise imposed on the Pashtun majority doesn't entail a strategic, religious and ideological defeat for the Palestinians --and for the Muslim world as a whole.
Gus |
