Med, pretty good analysis bro, but a few comments:
- Instead of “using” a group to rule Afghanistan, why can’t we try to go for broad based support from the population? India, like it or not has made infrastructural investments in Afghanistan, while the Paks. have (arguably) been a more crucial conduit to the survival of the state yet we gone unrecognized.
Pakhtun uprising: I hope you realize that there are Pakhtuns in Pakistan than Afghanistan and if there was an uprising, the Pakistani would not be able to contain, I assure you. I think even the pro-Pakistan Pakhtun will agree that the links with Afghanistan should stregenthened (ideally through coordinated trade and development).
- that being said, I do believe that the Taliban in Afghanistan did swept up in the anti-American furor and their weakest link to 9-11. If they had given up Osama, they probbly would still be in power. Talibs were quite successful in consolidating over a fracturous country like Afghanistan and there is no doubt that the government was comparatively less corrupt than the presently American sponsored regime.
We do need a friendly Afghanistan. Instead of seeking a client state, we should be working with them as our junior partners. It’s topo bad that successiv Pakistani governments have been all talk and little action when it comes a long term Afghanistan policy.