DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Virtual Taliban state in Northern Pakistan.

**Enjoymms** · 12-12-2006, 12:12 PM

Al Qaeda, with 10,000 fighters at most, is a meaningless organization when compared to the Taleban and their dozens of thousands. They have never been truly allied either and were suspicious of each other before the NATO intervention. Actually, it's this intervention that has incited different Afghan factions to join forces.
As for Pakistan, I wouldn't be so quick to blame then. What really happened is that after the Taleban were routed out of power, several officials criticized the shift from a fight for their own homeland (i.e. the virtual Pachtun kingdom) to a pointless guerilla against foreign troops. They ordered their followers to concentrate on the tribal areas of Pakistan - and, in large part, their success was due to the ridiculously weak NATO presence in Afghanistan which allowed them to divert nearly all of their forces from there. This put Musharraf into trouble, as his regime is not all that strong, Pakistan being multiethnic and having several areas vying for autonomy.

12-12-2006, 12:12 PM	#25
Enjoymms Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 610 Senior Member	Al Qaeda, with 10,000 fighters at most, is a meaningless organization when compared to the Taleban and their dozens of thousands. They have never been truly allied either and were suspicious of each other before the NATO intervention. Actually, it's this intervention that has incited different Afghan factions to join forces. As for Pakistan, I wouldn't be so quick to blame then. What really happened is that after the Taleban were routed out of power, several officials criticized the shift from a fight for their own homeland (i.e. the virtual Pachtun kingdom) to a pointless guerilla against foreign troops. They ordered their followers to concentrate on the tribal areas of Pakistan - and, in large part, their success was due to the ridiculously weak NATO presence in Afghanistan which allowed them to divert nearly all of their forces from there. This put Musharraf into trouble, as his regime is not all that strong, Pakistan being multiethnic and having several areas vying for autonomy.
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