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Originally Posted by Alien
This Karzai makes me laugh. Most of the Talibans being killed are done by NATO while they are also infesting Pakistan. And here he says they are posing no threat. If America ditches Afghanistan then they will fall like Vietnam did to the communists.
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much of this is really a public relations exercise. of course they fear the taliban. however, i think he was referring to the taliban purely as a military threat. perhaps he is also considering the nato troops being present in his country to be a permanent feature. this would explain the sense of dismissal.
it is really difficult to get an accurate picture of religious politics in pakistan. however, it appears to me that there is a growing islamic threat arrising in that country. the mullahs had always been kept out of politics in the short stints of democratic rule. this is because, despite popular support for a religiously run state, how the constituency boundaries are defined made it difficult for religious candidates to win overall majority. the seeds of religiosity that was fostered during the reign of general zia have truly matured now.
i think that it is pakistan that would be more in a turmoil if the us stopped backing its present secular military leaders. the red mosque incident was poorly handled. it has only given more impetus to the fundamentalists to carry on their armed struggle against the secular forces of nature.