- To what country have we given almost $35 billion over the last 20 years?
- In what country was Osama Bin Laden killed? (in a safe house next to the country’s leading military academy)
- What country has a nuclear arsenal of at least 50 weapons?
- What country sheltered, armed, and trained the Taliban?
- What country is, according to Sadanand Dhume in his column in the Wall Street Journal, 50 times more dangerous than Afghanistan?
The answer, as should have been obvious, to all five questions is Pakistan.
Here’s a telling quote from the linked piece:
Exultant Pakistanis shared a video clip from 2014 featuring Hamid Gul, a former head of the army’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence. “When history is written, it will be stated that the ISI defeated the Soviet Union in Afghanistan with the help of America,†Gul says to a fawning TV studio audience. “Then there will be another sentence. The ISI, with the help of America, defeated America.â€
The Pakistanis are not our friends. I don’t know that they’re anybody’s friends other than, perhaps, the Taliban.
Taliban with nukes?
The Liberal Democratic Order knows that can’t happen.
Only Trumpists would worry about that when the danger we face comes from domestic White Nationalists.
I think the Taliban are their useful clients. They would dump them in a heartbeat if something better came along. I dont remember the Taliban making efforts to attack the US. I doubt they have the sophistication needed to deliver a nuke outside of they sphere of influence. Could be wrong.
Steve
I don’t think the Taliban are their clients anymore. The Taliban has metastasized, and the Pakistani’s are trying to defeat the Pashtun-based “Pakistani Taliban” (TTP) that wants to overthrow the government.
I was thinking about this last night. I was not surprised at all that the Afghans folded so quickly. So from the side on defense I expected a fail. But what about the team on offense? I am a bit surprised that they were organized enough to take over the country so quickly. How much has the Taliban changed or was it fairly competent all along? Or maybe you dont need any real planning and logistical capabilities when the opposition just hands over its weapons and walks away?
Steve
Pepe Escobar (always worth reading) says that Russia, China, and Iran have been coaching the Taliban for years, trying to mellow out to the point you can do business with them. In a recent presser, their spokesmen promised to respect women’s right, grant amnesty to those who worked with US/NATO, end the opium trade, and prevent terrorists from using Afghanistan as a base of operations.
It remains to be seen what they will do. Suppression of the opium trade will happen for sure, because they did it once before. China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, India, and the other ‘stans are offering the Taliban very substantial bribes of economic development if they will behave. So far, the Taliban have promised to protect China’s BRI/OBOR projects. China wants those projects very badly, so they likely will lean real hard on the Taliban.
I expect that buried under carrots and a few big sticks the Taliban will go along and play nice. It is already obvious that Taliban 2.0 is not the same as Taliban 1.0. For one thing, it has gone from being a Pashtun militia to being a coalition of almost all the tribes, except the Northern Alliance. It is not clear that the central leadership can control all members of the alliance, and some atrocities are bound to occur.
Afghanistan might become as normal a state as you can have with a radical Muslim government, perhaps as “normal” as Pakistan.
Bob Sykes;
The Asian Times seems to be China biased, I’m sure that is not news to you.
Why do you respect the source?