The Long Term Threat To South Asia -- Taliban Or US?

My Comment # 18. April 14, 2009 11:51 pm Link

Who’s the real threat in the South Asia region– The Taliban?

Or the US and US-led NATO?

The fact is the Taliban emerged from the mujahideen that the US nurtured, armed and trained in the 10-year Cold War face off in Afghanistan against the erstwhile Soviet Union. The US were the paymasters and handlers of the Taliban and the ISI.

The US govt. has been a force for destabilization and lately, state-sponsored terror, since the Dulles era of the State Dept in the Eisenhower administration, targeting Pakistan for satellite status after Pakistan was weakened by the Brit-driven Partition. The South Asian nation states went from colonization to neo-imperial threat.

The physical presence of the US and the US-led Nato in my South Asia region distorts intra-regional geopolitics among the sovereign nation-states (some more fragile than others).
The US now holds the balance of power in the region, which is its core objective in every region of the world.

I wonder how Obama would feel if his daughters Sasha and Malia were killed in a US drone attack. That happened to children last week in a NATO airstrike, and the death of children was confirmed by President Karzai.

When civilians are killed by the US and US-led NATO, recruitment demands into the Taliban ranks are more likely to succeed, especially when families are grieving and therefore more vulnerable to Taliban and warlord pressure.

The US and NATO have no legitimacy in the South Asia region.

Chithra KarunaKaran
Ethical Democracy As Lived Practice
http://EthicalDemocracy.blogspot.com
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New York Times copyright
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/south-asias-taliban-problem
April 14, 2009, 5:19 pm
South Asia’s Taliban Problem
By The Editors
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/14/world/asia/14afghan.html?emc=eta1
Civilians Died in Airstrike by NATO, Afghan Says
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. and ABDUL WAHEED WAFA
Published: April 13, 2009
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/world/asia/15afghan.html?ref=global-home
In Recruiting an Afghan Militia, U.S. Faces a Test
U.S. Army officers held a meeting, or shura, with Afghan elders in Maidan Shahr who read a threatening Taliban "night letter" sent to a village elder warning people not to associate with American forces.
By DEXTER FILKINS
Published: April 14, 2009
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