"The pro-Taliban group — known as the Tehrik Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammedi, or the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law — is led by Sufi Muhammad, who Pakistan freed from custody last year after he renounced violence.

Muhammad is the father-in-law of Maulana Fazlullah, the leader of the Swat Taliban. Muhammad, who has long agitated for Islamic law in the region, said that after the formal announcement he will go to Swat and ask Fazlullah and his men to lay down their arms."

Swat Taliban has said that they would lay down their arms if Islamic law is implemented in their regions. They would respect government control in the region as well. This is politicking to try and defuse the situation instead of continuous warfare. However I don't think its sustainable because it shows appeasement and not all forces would be willing to abide to this. At least not as far as I believe.

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I wouldn't necessarily blame this squarely on Bush, the Great Game in Afghanistan has been waged ever since the collapse of the Afghan government and the incursion of Soviet forces. The parties involved ranged from the CIA, the ISI, the Saudi Wahhabists, Iran and individual non allied forces from within Afghanistan and the surrounding Central Asian States.

The CIA pulled out once the Soviet forces collapsed, they had no end game for Afghanistan and thus stopped their activities there. However the CIA had used the ISI's extensive network in Afghanistan to achieve their aims of supporting the Mujaheddin. Once the nation splintered and several forces started fighting for control, the Taliban emerged and started a successful campaign against other forces, they were sponsored by the ISI and Saudi Wahhabists, many fighters came from the border region madrases that advocated religious war to implement extremist Islam in Afghanistan.

The ISI basically wanted to create a Pushtun government in Afghanistan that they would influence. However the Taliban didn't basically roll over and abide for anyone. Instead they started to charge the ISI large fees for transportation to Central Asian States, remember this is a valuable trade route it lies at the center between South East Asia and Central Asian States, war over the years meant the routes were unsafe.

The Taliban always wanted to be considered a legitimate government but were only ever recognized fully by Pakistan, their stringent rule, public executions and support and keeping of Osama Bin Laden was contrary to Western wishes. They went on to also destroy the large drug trade in Afghanistan, opium, heroine and hashish crops were wiped out.

Then 9/11 occurred and we all know what happened then.

However I believe in the ensuing war Taliban forces started to seep back into Pakistan and start to take over large swathes of land knowing that the sophisticated NATO and American forces have no legitimate power to confront them there. Creating a base from which to launch more attacks into Afghanistan and solidifying their own control in the FATA and influencing NWFT forces.

It's a classic case of blow back.

I don't really have any negative feelings about you either way, I met alot of troops like you in Kuwait already, they were all pissed they weren't fighting a conventional military force under a very vague mission statement of bringing Freedom and Democracy. Its hard to do anything when you have no definitive objective or exit strategy. Surprisingly to me a lot of them fell in love with the place and went native, but that happened in Vietnam and other conflicts as well.

The drug problem in Afghanistan is economical, when the Taliban took over they banned the drug trade with their usual heavy hand tactics, when chaos began the drug trade began all again. Culturally alot of people cultivated it for medicinal use, which explains my own rather liberal views towards drugs. But now mostly its a cash crop, for most its a means of survival though there are farms that are solely created to feed back funds into the Taliban movement and other warring factions. The old "its okay to grow this because it only destroys the infidel" ignoring the large drug abuse levels in the local population, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and many other nations through which it makes its way.

In terms of imposing culture I think alot of US military and political planners, coming from the top down Bush belief that "democracy will simply flourish given the chance" implemented alot of very silly political and economical ideas. I remember reading about the imposition of democratic elections in Iraq in rural tribal areas, the US civies where then shocked to find that everyone voted by tribal alliances and background. It's again a failure to read the human terrain of the battlefield in the same way we had occur in Vietnam.

This aspect is covered very well in several chapters of Dexter Filkins The Forever War - http://www.amazon.com/Forever-War-Dexter-Filkins/dp/0307266397
Showing the disparity of understanding between coalition forces and the local population, I recommend it as unlike many books it stays politically neutral with no preaching on either side but rather an account of a journalist who went through Afghanistan and Iraq during the opening stages of the war.

In reply to this comment by smooman:
As per our last "discussion" you probably dont like me much but I think i just found some common ground =)

In reply to this comment by Farhad2000:

Given the last 8 years, I believe the Western world needs to engage the Arab world in dialog but it must respect the cultural background of the region and not just think that it can westernize ideas through brute force and seemingly endless criticism of it's religion.

I, for one, absolutely HATE the idea of westernizing Arab and Persian nations (namely Iraq and Trashgan....I mean Afghanistan). One of the platoons in my unit, while we were in Afghanistan, went out on a mission with the objective of demolishing a cannabis field. I was livid when I found out. These are a people who have been a nation far, far longer than we (the USA) and here we are telling them, forcing them even, to be like us while completely disregarding centuries of culture and history. Fuck that!

I didn't know you were from the Netherlands.

I dearly want to move to Amsterdam and have been keeping an eye on the news there for a while.

The shroom thing bugs me; I'm sorry the French girl died, but for heaven's sake how can anybody be sure it was the shrooms? Young woman commits suicide for no apparent reason - not exactly ground shaking news I'm sorry to say. Sadly it happens every day and shrooms have nothing to do with it most of the time.

And another thing, if Britain would own up to their own prevalent drug problems, half of the problems in Amsterdam would disappear, since most of the problems are from the English treating Amsterdam the way Texans treat Juarez Mexico.

In short, I love your country and I love Amsterdam and I hope the right-wing Bible-beating assholes don't ruin it before I have a chance to move there.

Cheers.

In reply to this comment by cybrbeast:
Though the Netherlands is a good example of how decriminalization has worked and is effective, my country seems to be heading in the wrong direction again. The Christian right wing of our coalition would like to see marijuana made illegal again. They are trying to make it as hard as possible for coffeeshops to operate and are clamping down hard on the production of marijuana and the supply to the coffeeshops which is not decriminalized. This all while the mayors representing the big cities who actually deal with the marijuana issues want to start experimenting with regulating the production of marijuana.

The Christian right wing has also succeeded in making magic mushrooms illegal. All this was based on a media hype involving a few tragic incidents with magic mushrooms. One french girl committed suicide while she was under the influence and a few British tourists flipped out while combining alcohol with mushrooms. Something like 95% of the problems were with tourists. This is not strange because many of them come to the Netherlands to try them out, and often times do it without proper education and in a bad environment. While the government was passing these laws the public health and drug institutions were issuing reports that criminalizing mushrooms would not be productive and would actually harm public health. This seems so similar to how American prohibition and drug laws were undertaken.

I hope my government will change soon and seek the road of progress. We should be further legalizing and regulating the drug trade not the opposite. But even if our government would like this international pressure has always been hard on our drug laws.

Though the Netherlands is a good example of how decriminalization has worked and is effective, my country seems to be heading in the wrong direction again. The Christian right wing of our coalition would like to see marijuana made illegal again. They are trying to make it as hard as possible for coffeeshops to operate and are clamping down hard on the production of marijuana and the supply to the coffeeshops which is not decriminalized. This all while the mayors representing the big cities who actually deal with the marijuana issues want to start experimenting with regulating the production of marijuana.

The Christian right wing has also succeeded in making magic mushrooms illegal. All this was based on a media hype involving a few tragic incidents with magic mushrooms. One french girl committed suicide while she was under the influence and a few British tourists flipped out while combining alcohol with mushrooms. Something like 95% of the problems were with tourists. This is not strange because many of them come to the Netherlands to try them out, and often times do it without proper education and in a bad environment. While the government was passing these laws the public health and drug institutions were issuing reports that criminalizing mushrooms would not be productive and would actually harm public health. This seems so similar to how American prohibition and drug laws were undertaken.

I hope my government will change soon and seek the road of progress. We should be further legalizing and regulating the drug trade not the opposite. But even if our government would like this international pressure has always been hard on our drug laws.

US is now all of the sudden doing full time Canadian border patrol with UAVs.

I would wonder why they wait until winter.. Maybe it is more effective with no tree cover and IR spotting. Maybe there is a big drug trade or something. But you'd think UAVs would be better served in Iraq or Mexico border.

Of course the simpler explanation is that DHS has insanely large budget and probably have to spend it on something.

Ha! You make it seem that the US doesn't sell out arms to repressive nations either. Every first world nation is guilty of selling weapons, its just too lucrative of a trade to ignore.

Citing threats from Iran, Syria, and various terrorist groups, the Bush administration is offering more than $60 billion in new weapons and military assistance to Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other U.S. allies in the Middle East.

Egypt is a dictatorship that has been under emergency rule for close to 40 years now. Saudi Arabia is nation with countless human rights abuses. Israel is constantly taking out Palestinians who can only sometimes retaliate with a suicide vest against M-16s, Apache gun ships, F-16s and Merkava tanks.

The United States retained its dominance of the Third World arms market for the eighth year in a row in 2002, according to the latest in an annual series of reports produced by the Congressional Research Service.

Washington accounted for close to one-half of all new arms transfer agreements concluded during the year, as well as actual arms deliveries. Altogether, arms sales from all sources to developing countries made up about two-thirds of arms sales worldwide during 2002, according to the report, which is based on the most comprehensive data compiled by the US government.

New arms agreements with developing nations totaled US$17.7 billion, a 10 percent increase over new deals in 2001. Of that total, US sales came to $8.6 billion, or almost 48 percent of all arms transfers to Third World countries, up from 41 percent the previous year.

Washington was followed by Russia, which sold $5.7 billion worth of arms; Ukraine ($1.6 billion); Italy ($1.5 billion); and Germany and France ($1.1 billion each).

Arm sales, shit so hot everyone fucks with it.

And Pprt I seen you post some heinous shit before but this really is fucking stupid.

"I also anxiously await the day Africans will put aside their petty tribalism and begin working instead of loafing about and conducting sporadic warfare"

"The stark truth is that Africans have been around for longer than us, and have adapted to their environment accordingly in temperament and constitution. They have higher levels of sexual hormones, a lower gestation period a "thrifty" gene permitting greater retention of nutrients and as ethnomedicine evolves, drugs will further target their distinctive biology."

Oh please, that's such stupid xenophobic bullshit. The same kind of attitude that the US pushed in South American interventionism, as if civil war, the drug trade and rebel movements were ingrained in their DNA.

Also combine in the effort to make it a moral issue and decriminalization feels like an insurmountable task. I think it will be a very tough one and I am less than optimistic that I will see it in my lifetime. But I see the far-ranging negative affects on society and have to do something, albeit a small something.

>> ^choggie:
800 billion dollars a year the world's drug trade nets??......funding everything from the NSA to private cabals' and skyscraper construction in Dubai.....you think it'll ever be decriminalized???
Not in this paradigm....

800 billion dollars a year the world's drug trade nets??......funding everything from the NSA to private cabals' and skyscraper construction in Dubai.....you think it'll ever be decriminalized???
Not in this paradigm....

Yesterday, in New Orleans, protesters stopped the planned demolition of dilapidated public housing units at the B. W. Cooper public housing complex. Today, fresh from this success, protesters are poised to march on City Hall to stop other planned demolitions. The Housing Authority of New Orleans has announced plans to demolish four public housing developments in New Orleans and replace them with mixed income neighborhoods. The demonstrators are opposed to these demolition plans and believe it is part of a conspiracy to prevent poor African Americans from returning to New Orleans.

In contrast, the re-development of these units will benefit the former occupants of these housing projects. Creating units that offer modern amenities, less dense living conditions and a mix of inhabitants is preferable to the situation that existed in B.W. Cooper and the other housing projects in New Orleans. Prior to Katrina, housing projects were characterized by a high crime rate, gang activity, a thriving illegal drug trade, prostitution and filth.

To see how a redevelopment can be done correctly people should investigate the former St. Thomas housing projects, which are now the River Gardens neighborhood and a new Walmart store. It is a vast improvement over the situation that existed previously and should serve as a model for the redevelopment in many of these other projects.

Unfortunately, instead of moving forward and providing hope to residents, professional protesters and experienced agitators succeeded in shutting down the B.W. Cooper demolition last night. Now, this same group wants to thwart the demolition plans at three other housing developments.

In reality, none of the previous residents of these public housing developments have a “right” to return. Residents lived in these facilities courtesy of the taxpayers of the United States. They did not own these units. Instead the units are owned by the federal government and the people of this country.

All of these facts are disregarded by the professional protesters who came in to New Orleans from other states, carrying signs and yelling at work crews hired to do a job that had been approved several years ago. Yesterday, at the B.W. Cooper protest, license plates were spotted from Ohio, Kentucky and Massachusetts. Who are these individuals? What stake do they have in New Orleans? They have the luxury to come into town and protest and then leave and not have to face the crime and trash that characterize the housing projects.

It's WAY more fun to be an optimist than to waste time caring about stuff. We should all try it now and then, don't you think?

In reply to this comment by choggie:
It will not be legal in the U.S.
Profit has come to the powerful few who control drug trade, and governments have a vested interest in keeping it tight. The 3 legal drugs mentioned above, are also controlled by a few-and the govt. has their hands innit up to their shoulders and necks.
Drugs legalized would cripple the economy in America-the low-end wage earners would be that much more unmotivated to change your oil or tires, make your burgers, etc. hence, casualties on the highways and in stomachs-
The prison system depends on drugs, a first arrest for possession of pot, for example, gets the new cash-cow into the system, when finally inside, they are groomed and recruited for more badness that will feed that hydra head-

Basically, the system is set up like this for a reason-to keep the profits in the hands of a few-Don't look to anything more than increased control, surveillance, and prohibitions, this is the global agenda.

Ron Paul has not a chance in hell, of slowing the program that these people have been working on feverishly for the past 40 years-short of another revolution or coop, which is unlikely, this current paradigm will play itself out according to plan.

Live to the fullest within any paradigm, use the prohibition of freedoms as a license to benifit from the same, otherwise, waste your time as an activist, conspiracy theorist, junkie, or ....voter.

It will not be legal in the U.S.
Profit has come to the powerful few who control drug trade, and governments have a vested interest in keeping it tight. The 3 legal drugs mentioned above, are also controlled by a few-and the govt. has their hands innit up to their shoulders and necks.
Drugs legalized would cripple the economy in America-the low-end wage earners would be that much more unmotivated to change your oil or tires, make your burgers, etc. hence, casualties on the highways and in stomachs-
The prison system depends on drugs, a first arrest for possession of pot, for example, gets the new cash-cow into the system, when finally inside, they are groomed and recruited for more badness that will feed that hydra head-

Basically, the system is set up like this for a reason-to keep the profits in the hands of a few-Don't look to anything more than increased control, surveillance, and prohibitions, this is the global agenda.

Ron Paul has not a chance in hell, of slowing the program that these people have been working on feverishly for the past 40 years-short of another revolution or coop, which is unlikely, this current paradigm will play itself out according to plan.

Live to the fullest within any paradigm, use the prohibition of freedoms as a license to benifit from the same, otherwise, waste your time as an activist, conspiracy theorist, junkie, or ....voter.

It is hard to believe, that folks who consider themselves enlightened as to the workings of the planet's contrived systems, that no one has bothered to mention how simple it would be for an octopus like the old and gas and military, all working hannover fist, to keep theirs for them, could not use, governments, leaders, or orchestrated events like 9/11's controlled demolitions and protracted war on terror, to remain in place as long as they can....fuck, if a couple of bombs going off in some city E.U. , etc., can illicit fear that effects worldwide economics.....then the few lives and improvements on some real estate, is a small goddamn price to pay......especially when you control all media, this includes Fox, CNN, and all of them, control all diversion such as sporting events, and political campaigns, social issues, have a lockdown on a "legal" world drug trade, arms manufacture, agri-biz, federal and national reserves......I mean fuck people, talk about being able to get away with murder.....and with the internet, the availability of knowledge and history to the masses, there are STILL, folks who refuse to believe the possibility even exists.....


denial is a motherfucker