Winning in Afghanistan Requires Taking the Fight to Pakistan

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

It's Michael Rubin. He's the man who makes dumbass claims, and points to his "credentials" as having a PhD in history, as if they automatically make his arguments correct. He's a man who's smelled his own farts too many times, and is convinced they smell like roses.

Oh his point, because it's only fair to actually address his rant: he clearly doesn't understand the history or politics of Afghanistan. If Pakistan ceased to exist, Afghanistan would likely STILL be a mess. Any fool who thinks otherwise, should be rightfully ignored. Never forget, it was Dick Cheney who fucked Afghanistan's chances of having peace, by rejecting the the taliban's offer of surrender. It was the US who decided to ignored everyone's advice, including Pakistan, and sending troops to Iraq, while pulling troops out of Afghanistan in 2003. There are more examples, such as not inviting the taliban leadership to the first Bonn conference, and the way the state department constantly fought with the Pentagon on the strategy for Afghanistan, but even ignoring all that; the fact remains, the Taliban's directly control 30% of Afghanistan, they also contest up to 50% more of Afghanistan, that's all without the aid of so called Pakistani sanctuaries. Mullah Omar lived within walking distance of a major US military base, showing the gross incompetence of US forces.

What is there to blame Pakistan for? Afghanistan has been in turmoil long before Pakistan even existed in the mind Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Afghanistan has been in constant conflict long before British rule of South Asia.

What is new here?

Afghanistan has not been a united nation since the time of Ahmed Shah Durrani, and he himself was only partly successful. No one since his time has united Afghanistan, and it's likely no one ever will.

Rubin, as usual, has a stupid opinion about a topic he only has a superficial understanding of. Michael Rubin's PhD is nothing more than toilet paper, as it has not done any good, and has only served to increase his ego, and spout clear nonsense.

"Resident Scholar" my ***. If this is considered scholarly, than the future is dark for academia.

As for the western folks vis-a-vis Afgan region, it started with Alexander the Great....

 

[Abdussamad]

FATF is an old stick that the Americans want to use to beat the Pak economy. What is the likely impact? If Pakistan is added to the list it could primarily affect Pakistan's trade with the West?

It'll affect all our international trade. The west controls money flows and if they blacklist us we will have trouble paying for imports including essentials like oil and medicines, receiving remittances and export proceeds. It'll kill our economy and it'll kill our ability to defend ourselves against india. You can't wage war if you have no fuel for your tanks and jets.

Finally the author suggests to hinder Pakistan's access to loans from the IMF and other major lending institutions. How much of an impact can this have on the health of the economy? Doesn't Pakistan get these loans to repay outstanding loans and interest? The IMF loans are barely used for domestic projects?

Oh you think they will not do this because they lent us some loose change they found between the couch cushions in the past and they are worried we won't be able to repay them. That will not stop them. It is a relatively cheap way to get us to bend to their will.

Also you're totally wrong that we didn't benefit from the money. We've enjoyed decades of subsidized imports because of it. That's what our wise rulers chose to do with the borrowed dollars - subsidize foreign exporters.

Essentially all the bravado you see from posters in this thread is built on ignorance of how weak our economy is. If you want me to summarize it for you look at venezuela and iran. Two oil rich countries that have faced off against the US and suffered massively for it. We don't have oil. We have nothing.

 

[khanz]

This guy writes anti Turkey, anti Iran and now anti-Pak articles .He can f uck right off.