At the risk of sounding a little racist the other Afghani sects are not hated because of their culture. It's just that in Pakistan they are usually viewed upon as drugs smugglers and petty crooks.
New Recruit
New Recruit
"At the risk of sounding a little racist the other Afghani sects..."
Excusable by a moderator, perhaps, but dangerous nonetheless as it colors this arrogant perspective-
"It is beneficial to have actual Pashtu control rather than have an Americanized Pashtun fella..."
Racist against whom, may I ask, beside the Turkomen, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaris, etc.? America too? Asim, does his accent bother you? "Actual Pashtu control", as though by any reasonable standard Karzai is not?
The issue, bluntly, is your dismay that there is no pashtu puppet running the Afghan gov't at your bidding.
That last group of pashtu puppets helped some guys kill three thousand civilians in a day.
Asim, the Taliban are knee-deep in opium.
Afghan Opium Production- Jane's Intelligence Review
"In recent Afghan history, opium poppy cultivation has been fairly regular, ranging from 54,000 to 80,000 hectares and depending mostly on climatic factors. As for the 91,000 and the 8,000 hectares harvested respectively in 1999 and 2001, yielding 4,581 and 185 tonnes of opium, they clearly stand out as statistical extremes and exceptions. However, while both occurred under the Taliban rule, only the second (185 tonnes/8,000 hectares) can be clearly attributed to a political decision, that of Taliban-imposed opium suppression, and not to economic or climatic factors. However, the Taliban prohibition has had consequences for today's production (quick restoration and, most likely, increase) that should be remembered before any other similar ban - enforced hastily and without compensative income available for the resource-poor - is planned.
Until 2000, Taliban policies were influenced by a combination of internal and external factors, many of which are still prevalent today. On the internal level, Afghanistan's socio-economic situation made, and still makes, opium production one of the only means of providing access to land, labour and credit for many of its farmers, most of whom are either tenants or sharecroppers. The Afghan peasantry's heavy dependence upon opium production, associated with politico-territorial realities of a tribal society with fragile political allegiances, prevented the Taliban from making any attempts at eradication during their few years in power. Abdul Rashid, the director of drug control for Kandahar province in 1997 said at the time that, at least without external aid, it was 'simply not possible to eradicate the poppy without alienating the farmers'. Nevertheless, the Taliban banned opium production in 2000, either to secure international support or, as some have speculated, to drive opium prices up to benefit from additional income. The move was unexpected and extremely successful, at least in the short term, as only 185 tonnes were harvested in 2001, much less than the 3,276 tonnes of 2000. Moreover, only 35 out of the overall 185 tonnes was effectively harvested across Taliban-held territory. The rest came from northern areas controlled by the United Front, notably from Badakhshan.
The 2002 restoration of opium production to pre-ban levels (3,400 tonnes) suggests that the Taliban prohibition was most likely politically and economically unsustainable without strong international aid. Factors in the micro-level economics of opium production in Afghanistan even suggest that the Taliban prohibition made the renewal of production at increased levels an imperative. Under the salaam loan system, Afghan peasants without capital traditionally borrow important sums or benefit from advances against takings: their opium crops are thus sold one or two years in advance at half the price of their value. This credit system, the only available in the country, keeps many farmers in debt at the same time as it makes their survival possible."
The taliban gov't presided in 1999 over the harvest of 4581 tons of opium. Cultivation wasn't banned until 2001 and this report suggests that it would have been unsustainable by the Taliban in any case.
Racist comments coupled with a weak case don't make for good discourse.
