Originally Posted by hkbajwa

Well i have to agree there too. Pakistan is woefully corrupt, infiltrated by extremist elements at certain levels and a downright crappy nation in many respects.

But i hardly think it's fair to lay all the blame of afghnistan on Pakistan.

As you may remember, Zia ul Haq's military dictatorhsip was funded and supported by the US government, inspite of the fact that he raped the nation, crushed free speech, infused fundamentalist propoganda into our very school curriculum, gave authoritative powers to the mullahs through the Hudood Ordinance, eliminated all political consciousness in the population, and basically took pakistan back several decades in terms of development.

Why did the US support his cruel regime? The answer is the war in afghanistan. When the Soviets invaded, the US found a pliable general in Zia, and used him to establish training camps, supply ammunition and fund the Mujahedin. This is where OBL came from. THis is also where the Taliban came from.

Why did they have to use the radical muslims to fight this fight. Well because the atheistic nature of communism was such an anathema to the mullahs in Pakistan ( who had just been through a socialist government at the time) that they were the only ones willing to give their lives.

SO technically in the interest of defeating COMMUNISM, the US inadvertently funded the very movement that is causing them huge problems NOW.

I feel embarassed to admit that a pakistani leader was the US's bitch.. but greed will make a bitch of anyone, and Zia was greedy for money and power.

Anyhow, to say that pakistan is the main cause of problems in afghnistan is false in two ways:

1) Firstly, the funding, training, arming and deployment of the taliban ( then known as mujahedin) was done at the behest of the US and with US MONEY and US ARMS.
2) Pakistan suffers more than any other nation (other than afghanistan itself) from unrest in afghanistan. Pakistan currently supports the WORLD LARGEST REFUGEE POPULATION. More than 3 million afghani REFUGEES live in pakistan.. not immigrants, not working people, not positive influences, but REFUGEES who have no assets, very little or no skill, and no money. FOrget Pakistan handling these people.. can you imagine how the US would fare if it suddenly had to tackle 3 million refugees. They are a HUGE burden.

As you very rightly have stated, Pakistan is a thrid world nation. Exactly what interest would a third world nation have in creating more refugees to take care of?

Musharraf has done everything he can to keep the afghans on their side of the border including military offensives in the Waziristan region. Pakistan in any case does not have great relations with Kabul, and afghnistan has no strategic interest for Pakistan.

I don't get where you have the idea that 90% of afghani problems stem from pakistan. That is quite simply not true. Pakistan is helping the US in the fight in afghanistan, and anything pkaistan may have done in the past was a direct order of the US.