Comment by Arcus on July 6, 2011 at 11:56am

The Taliban was a southern rural Sunni/Hanafi led, Saudi financed (to a large extent), Pakistan aligned political and military movement which by the time of the invasion of 2001 had pretty much full control of the country and its government. These "other factions" was the Northern Alliance, which the US already has aligned themselves with.However, the US did not choose the divisive Northern Alliance general Dostum and preferred the mujahedin financier Karzai as president. There was pretty much "peace" (the actual situation does not serve the word justice) at the time of the invasion because these "other factions" had been decimated by the Taliban.

Afghanistan was a fairly peaceful country until the civil war sparked by communists in 1978, and subsequent Soviet invasion after a popular discontent, engulfed it into what is soon 30 years of war. The blame for this clearly rests with the imperialist ambitions of the crumpled USSR. If it wasn't for the US distaste for hereditary monarchies, the best option would be someone similar to Zahir Shah to lead the country.

It will probably be another 50-80 years before the Taliban is approachable, but unfortunately the Americans aren't as patient as Britain was against the IRA.

Comment by Michael Klein on July 6, 2011 at 12:06pm

Considering afghanistan has a tribal structure: The Afghan people are inherently the enemy of the Afghan people. Each *leader* of each tribe wants to dominate the others. And everybody follows their leader out of fear of retribution(or because they expect some gain for themself). The obvious solution would be to kill every bad leader BUT this could easily start a blood feud...and does nothing against possible coups in the tribes.

 

Unless we get rid of the tribal structure and replace it with a sense of nationalism, they will start another civil war soon or later which will probably eradicate any advance in human rights.

Comment by Derek on July 6, 2011 at 10:13pm

What Sassan is rejoicing over is akin to blowing up a whole neighbourhood and celebrating when a flower grows out of the rubble.

Comment by Sassan K. on July 7, 2011 at 1:36am

Not at all Derek, it is about liberation. Afghanistan today is a better place than it was under the brutal and barbaric rule of the Taliban. Things are not perfect - far from - but things are moving in the right direction and we care for the plight of Afghan women and the Afghan people should all rejoice.

Comment by Arcus on July 7, 2011 at 11:29am

I wouldn't exactly rejoice over two females engaging in what usually is considered violent male behavior, I'm more rejoicing that there are at least two females in the parliament and a female as a General is quite often a good idea. :)

@Michael: I generally agree that the still quite strong tribal structure of Afghanistan may lead to future conflict. Btw, there was a very interesting article in The Atlantic today about negotiations with the Taliban. Still doesn't sound like a good idea to me..

Comment by Derek on July 7, 2011 at 8:52pm

That's great Sassan, I'm all for liberation and the plight of Afghan women but it seems like you are jumping for joy to quick here, if you get my meaning.  I.e lot's of work still to be done

Comment by Sassan K. on July 7, 2011 at 9:02pm

I agree Derek - lot's of work to be done. But Afghan women are better off today than they were 10-years ago - but much more and a lot more work to be done most definitely..

Comment by Derek on July 7, 2011 at 9:53pm

Sassan. I suppose it's a small something, and that's better than nothing at all. But in the light of the last ten bloody years in Afghanastan, that small something seems very small indeed.

Comment by Sassan K. on July 7, 2011 at 11:41pm

It's not that small now - women in Afghanistan are able to work and obtain education - including young girls in which they were not allowed. This was just an example of how much has changed in the last 10-years for Afghani women - but far more work needs to be done as I take the stance that regardless of where you are born - the ultimate goal is equality of the sexes. Of course this is not going to happen in Afghanistan over night or any time soon frankly; at the same time, we shouldn't also ignore the successes of the last 10-years for the Afghani people.

Comment by Albert Bakker on July 8, 2011 at 1:14am

10 years of occupation, ready to surrender to the Afghan Taliban (the moderate Taliban - as opposed to the radical Pakistan Taliban/ AQ alliance) and Afghanistan being a worse place for women than Congo, the "rape capital of the world." It is rather important to what exactly are those successes we are ignoring here, this morning that NATO killed yet another 14 civilians of which 8 children in Khost.

The list is short:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/what-has-the-war-in-af...

The story of the women brawling is actually a lot less interpretable as a sign of progress than as sign of underlying problems: http://outlookafghanistan.net/editorialdetail?post_id=1141

In other developments, showing you how the fucked up the situation is Mullen told the Pakistani government ordered the assassination of the Pakistani journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/07/07/us.mullen.pakistan....

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