Comments on: From Whence Cometh Pakistan? http://www.captainsjournal.com/2008/06/26/from-whence-cometh-pakistan/ News & Commentary on Warfare, Policy and Counterterrorism Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:30:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Herschel Smith http://www.captainsjournal.com/2008/06/26/from-whence-cometh-pakistan/#comment-25971 Herschel Smith Sat, 28 Jun 2008 03:36:54 +0000 http://www.captainsjournal.com/?p=1172#comment-25971 I agree concerning the endless rearrangement of powers in this region and the necessity to stay alive in all of these situations. I take a different view concerning the Pashtun, though. I don't call noble a people who can send their elders out to rape young women in front of their tribe when they committed the horror of actually walking with a male to their garden or somewhere else. Honor rapes and honor killings don't signify a noble people. That's okay. We can work with ignoble people, and have done so before. Either way, I don't think it's up to us. As the article points out, the Pashtun have rejected the GWOT. I agree concerning the endless rearrangement of powers in this region and the necessity to stay alive in all of these situations. I take a different view concerning the Pashtun, though. I don’t call noble a people who can send their elders out to rape young women in front of their tribe when they committed the horror of actually walking with a male to their garden or somewhere else. Honor rapes and honor killings don’t signify a noble people.

That’s okay. We can work with ignoble people, and have done so before. Either way, I don’t think it’s up to us. As the article points out, the Pashtun have rejected the GWOT.

]]> By: Warbucks http://www.captainsjournal.com/2008/06/26/from-whence-cometh-pakistan/#comment-25962 Warbucks Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:56:03 +0000 http://www.captainsjournal.com/?p=1172#comment-25962 I read the Pushtun as a noble people caught up in the vicious economics and endless recycling of power of the poppies and its attendant illicit riches. The Pushtun seek to preserve their 5,000 year old culture. They have seen economies come and go, they have seen governments come and go, they have seen armies threaten and leave. The depth of vast fortunes created by the opium trade, the dependable cash flow of the annual harvest, corrupts everything in its path and is as hard to manage as the flood waters of the great Mississippi River, with fingers that reach deeply into our own culture. They grow, harvest, package and ship; we consume. By summer of the first year of the next administration, the Pashtun will likely be faced with new choices regardless of who wins the US Presidential election. If the Pashtun can not resolve a cooperative anti-terrorist posture with its hosting governments, or with this administration, the next administration, Democratic or Republican, will likely unleash a war on the scale they can not yet comprehend. President Bush is their path of least resistance, but the Pashtun fail to understand him. McCain and Obama , either, will likely bring a General Sherman’s march to the sea upon them, if they can not find the wisdom to cooperate now. McCain will work to win, Obama has said he would act in the Frontier if Pakistan fails to act on good intelligence, and Obama will want to get the job done and done fast so he will use the level of power needed to do it. When you are rolling in money and control the golden goose, new wisdom is hard to receive. I read the Pushtun as a noble people caught up in the vicious economics and endless recycling of power of the poppies and its attendant illicit riches. The Pushtun seek to preserve their 5,000 year old culture. They have seen economies come and go, they have seen governments come and go, they have seen armies threaten and leave.

The depth of vast fortunes created by the opium trade, the dependable cash flow of the annual harvest, corrupts everything in its path and is as hard to manage as the flood waters of the great Mississippi River, with fingers that reach deeply into our own culture. They grow, harvest, package and ship; we consume.

By summer of the first year of the next administration, the Pashtun will likely be faced with new choices regardless of who wins the US Presidential election. If the Pashtun can not resolve a cooperative anti-terrorist posture with its hosting governments, or with this administration, the next administration, Democratic or Republican, will likely unleash a war on the scale they can not yet comprehend.

President Bush is their path of least resistance, but the Pashtun fail to understand him. McCain and Obama , either, will likely bring a General Sherman’s march to the sea upon them, if they can not find the wisdom to cooperate now. McCain will work to win, Obama has said he would act in the Frontier if Pakistan fails to act on good intelligence, and Obama will want to get the job done and done fast so he will use the level of power needed to do it.

When you are rolling in money and control the golden goose, new wisdom is hard to receive.

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