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| Afghanistan |
| Senior American Official Urges Partition of Afghanistan |
| 2010-09-14 |
| [Tolo News] Afghanistan should be allowed to part along ethnic lines by pulling back NATO forces, a senior former American national security advisor said In a speech at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London on Monday, Robert Blackwill, the United States National Security Advisor (from 2003 to 2004), calls on the US president Barack Obama to make drastic changes in the US's war objectives. Mr Blackwill told the Daily Telegraph that the US should only seek to defend those areas dominated by Afghanistan's Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara minorities by pulling out of bases in the south. He said that the US has spent over $100 billion on Afghanistan each year. He urged that Afghanistan's army and police can be made ready to control the whole country, while Liam Fox, the UK's Defence Secretary has said that Afghan forces will take security responsibilities by 2015. There are around 150,000 foreign forces, 100,000 of them American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan fighting an almost nine-year-old counter-insurgency war in the country. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #7 As opposed to a sovereign confederation of loose cannons. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2010-09-14 23:50 |
| #6 I've been saying this from the start. Best model for Afghanistan is Switzerland -- a loose of confederation of sovereign cantons. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2010-09-14 16:46 |
| #5 I have a better idea. Arm and support Abdul Rashid Dostum and turn him loose on the Pashtun with a mandate to render them harmless. |
| Posted by: Secret Asian Man 2010-09-14 13:54 |
| #4 Compare that with the ethnic groups within Afghanistan. Map |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-09-14 10:57 |
| #3 Diplomatically, this could be done by calling for the "unification of the Pushtun", uniting the southern half of Afghanistan, the Pushtun half, with the Pushtun part of Pakistan. Importantly, under Pakistani authority. It is bizarre that the countries in the region have little relationship with the ethnic groups. Map |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-09-14 10:55 |
| #2 Mr Blackwill told the Daily Telegraph that the US should only seek to defend those areas dominated by Afghanistan's Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara minorities by pulling out of bases in the south. Were they only a problem for each other, I could be persuaded. However [the deadly however!], the problem that makes its way to our side of the world comes out of the Pashtun part of Afghanistan, just like it did on 9/11. As Bodyguard wrote recently, we fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-09-14 08:53 |
| #1 Mr Blackwill exhibits common sense---burn the bastard!!! |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-09-14 05:12 |
