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So because you convinced yourself that I am talking out of my behind, you thought you had license to do so as well? Do you really expect people to take you seriously? And if they do, what does that say about them? Yes I think many people are worried about who will take up the struggle against the Taliban offensive once NATO leaves. Juan Cole is making the argument that given the constraints of domestic politics and the nationalist concern with the safety of US and Western troops, NATO cannot carry out the struggle effectively, and with respect to the civilians of Afghanistan (for example as a cost cutting measure Bush and Rumsfeld encouraged Karzai to shore himself up by making alliances with war lords, as Ahmed Rashid has shown in detail and as Obama has in fact criticized...though this may in fact not change). Now you with your memories of the 80s are not concerned about the Taliban offensive since you think we shouldn't be offending the Russians. Or perhaps you think the Taliban don't really exist (or you have forgotten about the rising attacks in Pakistan and the terrorism all over the world) or perhaps you have kept yourself ignorant of the probable effects of a jihadist victory on fundamentalism throughout the world, the pressures on the Pakistani state or the lives of India's Muslims. Without much argument you assert that NATO can play no role in thwarting their offensive, but you don't say who could. There's another pipe dream that if India makes concessions on Kashmir, the ISI will help contain the Taliban. But the point is that a sovereign Afghanistan is probably going to have stronger ties with India with its six percent growth and high tech economy than Pakistan. Also what would have increased is the number of innocent civilians that the Taliban has killed were it not for the successful offensives against them. It's truly tragic that such an offensive had not been taken against Lashkar-e-Taibi. Rakesh > ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
