Whats your thoughts on Moeed describing Pakistan's concerns regarding India's intentions in Afghanistan as "paranoia or insecurity" or Pakistan's doctrine of using Afghanistan for strategic depth as " a big mistake" or Pakistan playing spoiler in Afghanistan peace process in the past?
Cole also mentions Pakistan was openly supporting Taliban politically, financially and logistically since atleast 1989.So much for Pakistani posters denying that(as ususal)
I think you may have missed the part where Moeed responds that no matter how you game it -- the playing out of history would have been more or less the same -- I personally tend to agree with his assessment (admittedly, my agreement does not add any weight to Moeed's assertion, I am a nobody, he's an authority on the subject).
I think most of the players have played their cards to hedge -- the structure of the Afghanistan / Pakistan problem would have resulted in more or less the outcomes that have played out -- not because Rawalpindi has great love (or has not) for the misogynist Taliban -- they in this round just happened to to be the least of the worst choices the gurnails thought they had available to them.
Pakistan has lost 50,000+ citizen to the Afghan mayhem, and sadly it seems the toll over the next decade is only set to climb -- however one should remember Afghanistan's antics have cost the lives of millions of Afghans (for a nation that even now only has a population of 30 million). The point is simply this: when crying foul over the 50,000 dead Pakistanis, what people fail to remember is the toll for Pakistan could have been may times that. As one of the commentators quipped, "not infrequently there are no good options" or something to that effect.
Now on to your "Pakistani as spoiler" comment -- You must remember (well a god-of-war certainly must):
1. It was not Pakistan that interfered in Afghanistan first -- it was Afghans starting from almost the founding of Pakistan.
2. It was not Pakistan that invited the Soviets to invade Afghanistan -- it was the Afghans.
3. It was not Pakistan that refused to honor the peace agreements between the Mujahadeen factions -- it was the Afghans
4. Until 2004 or so, there was no support for the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistani elites decided to hedge using the Taliban after what they saw was a hostile Afghanistan -- you may not remember the attitude of the Afghan elites towards Pakistan in 2002--2005 but I suspect most Pakistanis who track Afghanistan do -- Abdullah Abdullah, Amrullah Saleh, Hanif Atmar, Saikal's contempt and snubbing of Pakistan has few parallels. Their posture towards Pakistan, IMHO, deserves a chapter or two in Pakistani school textbooks so Pakistani children know what coin the Afghans paid the poor Pakistani people who hosted them for over 30 years. But I guess tarikh has few takers in Pakistan.
5. Pakistan does not want the Taliban to take over Afghanistan -- it will only spell disaster for Pakistan -- they want a fragmented polity in Afghanistan that will be weak and consumed by internal bickering -- this seems to be self fulfilling prophecy given the way things are headed.
6. Further, in case his divineness, the godofwar has forgotten what the Taliban think of Pakistan, I would like to refer him to Mullah Zaeef's autobiography "My life with the Taliban" -- he states: “Pakistanis can get milk even from a bull. They have two tongues in one mouth, and two faces on one head so they can speak everybody’s language; they use everybody, deceive everybody. They deceive the Arabs by using the name of Islam, they milk America in war against terrorism and they have been deceiving Pakistanis in the name of Kashmiris, but behind the curtain they have been betraying everyone". Taliban are no friends of Pakistan - there is no Afghan who is a friend of Pakistan (to their defense it seems there is no Afghan who is a friend of Afghanistan either -- lol)
I wonder if his divineness, the godofwar remembers that the Mujahadeen factions committed gross crimes against humanity -- rapes, mass killings, etc. -- The Norther Alliance that India supported grew out of these groups. One could argue that the Taliban's record on war crimes (minus the massacre of the Hazara people) was most times better than that of the Northern Alliance and that they brought some semblance of peace and admittedly a backward 7th century order to Afghanistan.
Even thought all regional hands are dirty where Afghanistan is concerned, The principal tormenters of Afghanistan are Afghans.
