tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5865994732097663473.post1798775059074819982..comments2024-03-01T06:01:21.087-05:00Comments on A Blog By James Curran: Aren't We There to Get Rid of the Taliban???James Curranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08064830948270604331noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5865994732097663473.post-54228713690704791322007-10-03T22:22:00.000-04:002007-10-03T22:22:00.000-04:00Karzai doesn't have a choice. With warlords like ...Karzai doesn't have a choice. With warlords like Dostum, Hekmaytar and Gul Agha beginning to stir, he's got to find some way of reconciling these vicious thugs or, as Gwynne Dyer puts it, Karzai risks becoming an ornament dangling from a light post on a Kabul street.<BR/><BR/>I don't understand our fetish about secular democracy in these places. When the people freely exercise their franchise they support Islamist parties. We don't like their choices so we simply ignore them and support our stooges, like Fatah. <BR/><BR/>In any case, Afghanistan has too many ethnic chasms to expect democracy to take hold in the immediate future. Pashtun, Baloch, Hazara, Uzbek, Tajik, Turkmen - each with its own agenda and ready to spill others' blood to advance it. Toss Pakistan and Iran into the mix, top with a sprinkling of drug lords, and you've got a little shop of horrors.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5865994732097663473.post-12401476992498377732007-10-01T23:57:00.000-04:002007-10-01T23:57:00.000-04:00I concur.I concur.Art Hornbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18103351963477702828noreply@blogger.com