R Wing
SENIOR MEMBER
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In my assessment it doesn't matter what personal dislike they have of us, they can have personal racism, etc, but what matters is political goals.
-Accepting the international boundary
-Not allowing their land to be used as a base for anti-Pakistan activity
-Maintain neutrality towards us at the least even if not wanting to be friends
-Bonus: have the same enemy in the Afghanistan context which are the Afghans so they can tackle them and save us time and resources.
I've spoken to some Taajiks, their leaders come and go, some get labelled as traitors, they just need someone to unite them together as one, as Taajiks. To point out their real enemies who are responsible for their persecution and colonisation of their lands. Pakistan is truly not their enemy.
A fierce leader to unite them and wake them up, will get rid of their hate. Their hate is circumstantial and a forced narrative that isn't based on reality.
To me this seems like a natural alliance. The hate against Pakistan in Taajiks was politically engineered through others, so they collectively followed the narrative.
The enemy of my enemy...
I agree with you. I agree that the hateful narrative came from elsewhere, but it is really thoroughly ingrained. I met an Afghan girl completing her master's degree at MIT. Over some biryani in Boston, I asked her who she felt was the right leader for Afghanistan. Answer: "Amrullah Saleh." Biggest problem for Afghanistan: "Pakistan."
It'll take time, but reversing this is doable. Pakistan did host a number of Tajik and other leaders in Islamabad, I believe, and I was told that this was essentially to send a message to the Afghan Taliban. Contacts should always remain open.
A solid uprising in the north would keep these extremists busy internally, and they'd likely not want to get sandwiched between two hostile actors, encouraging to make peace with us and destroy TTP in the process.