Re: Another suicide bomb blast kills 20 Pakistan commando forces
*Pashtun solidarity is a myth and only goes so far, much like other ethnicities and when faced with overwhelming military power their leaders and armies just crumble and flee.
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Pakhtun unity is more real than Pakistani unity. As someone who has held both identities, I can say that with confidence in terms of personal interactions. The Taliban were hardly an organized military. It was a militia that performed best in guerrilla warfare which was what the situation demanded. Lets not forget the massive casualties suffered by the Taliban by the airstrikes.
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That happened in 2001 in Afghanistan when Muhllah Omar and his Pashtun Taliban fighters just wilted way under sustained American bombing.
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For an irregular force to wilt away makes sense. It was not like the Iraq War where the vaunted Republican Guards surrendered or ran off.
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Also, most of the time Pashtun tribes in FATA are too busy killing each other in tribal disputes or extremist groups targetting Shia's - again so much for the unity of the Pakhtoons. Of course Pakthun nationalists will continue to comfort themselves in exhorting the great fighting prowess of their people, and how external powers have misled their people into extremism (are Pakhtuns such puppets?), but the decades of history show us that they are only good at killing each other, rather than really take on great military might - on their own.**
While it is true that Pakhtuns tribes have been have internal disputes and manipulated by the Pakistani state, many times in the name of Islam, you can not deny the fighting prowess. From the time of Alexander to the present, Pakhtuns have been a warrior race.
Again, much more could be said about this matter, but there is no point in insulting other groups of Pakistan.