Afghanistan hopes tribal uprising will bring peace

Sangin District "one time Taliban stronghold" Tribal uprising

The deadliest group of Taliban fighters in Afghanistan "the Haqqani's" have not conducted a complex large-scale attack in the capital city of Kabul for seven months, its momentum stymied as elite American-led commandos have escalated raids against the militants’ bomb makers and logisticians. In the past three months alone, commandos have carried out 1,784 missions across Afghanistan, killing or capturing 880 insurgent leaders. Taliban Fighters Appear Quieted in Afghanistan

New and increased drone attacks come in Khyber, an area abutting Afghanistan’s Nangahar province, that’s been notably drone-free. It has become an area for militants fleeing military action in South Waziristan. They also bring the drone-strike tally for this year up to 113, more than twice last year’s 53 strikes. But those figures don’t begin to tell the whole story.

As you know, the US is increasingly taking matters into its own hands inside Pakistan. The Haqqani's network and their increasingly foreign fighters have become the main focus after 9 years of fighting. The Haqqani's Network's North Waziristan leadership -- usually called the Miram Shah Shura consists of a number of Haqqani's family members and closely associated long-serving commanders.

At the top of the network is Sirajuddin Haqqani who oversees the group's political and military activities and is the main liaison to the Mullah Muhammad Omar led Quetta Shura Taliban, the Taliban's leadership body (named for the capital of Pakistan's Baluchistan province). He is also one of the network's liaisons to Pakistani Taliban figures and al-Qaeda.

He travels or should I say "did" regularly into Afghanistan to coordinate with field commanders and occasionally to Peshawar and South Waziristan to connect with militants there. Remember Bowe Bergdhal? There are many field commanders in Afghanistan, but turnover is high because many get killed or captured. The most prominent is Mullah Sangin, who is believed to be holding Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl a captured U.S. soldier and Zakim Shah the movement's shadow governor of Khost province who reportedly was just killed.

* Yes Mullah Sangin of the Sangin province where the tribal uprising is taking place against the Taliban.The notorious Taliban stronghold has been bitterly contested by insurgents and drug traffickers ever since British troops arrived in 2006, but the government revealed that tribal elders, backed by some local insurgents, have agreed to stand up to the Taliban.

It was also announced that that one group of insurgents have already handed in their weapons in an attempt to join a local peace process in Sangin. They are fighting back, this is what has been happening in Pakistan and what had to happen in Afghanistan. Under the arrangement, local Taliban fighters will stop attacking US and Afghan forces and will keep non-local insurgents out of the Sarwan-Qala area of the upper Sangin Valley, according to a spokesman for the Helmand governor Gulab Mangal.

Foot patrols by government forces will continue and local people will be expected to help clear areas of homemade bombs and tip off local police as to their whereabouts.

"There was no signed agreement but we believe this will create the opportunity for other Taliban fighters to come and join the government," said Daoud Ahmadi. He said that the Afghan army, police and US forces were all represented at the traditional tribal Shura last Saturday and that some of the tribal elders had been given authority by the local Taliban to speak on their behalf. Afghanistan hopes tribal uprising will bring peace

I was listening to ex Taliban fighters and their Commanders who fought NATO and the US for 6 years saying they figure the Government now cares about them so they have now stopped, They point out besides they are sick of fighting and we are leaving anyway. Great! That Is what I was hoping for from the beginning. At least long enough to let us leave then they can kill each other again.

America and NATO must get out! We have been there over 9 years, more than twice as long as WW2, now our longest war! Our soldiers did their job leave now with heads held high not our tails between our legs like in Saigon! Give food and supplies to the Afghans and if they want their freedom they will fight for it like the Pakistani tribes are.This is Afghanistan graveyard of Nations. Cheat history get out now this really is beginning to look promising. Now if we'd just start next year as planned and finish withdrawal by 2014 or sooner.




James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com

With 20 Million Affected by Pakistan's Floods Impact of Pakistan flood equal to 1947 partition

Knowing the magnitude of the floods in Pakistan and the enormous amount of people affected drawing comparisons to their biggest calamity the break up of India and the forming of Pakistan I thought I would supply links as to what is happening today so you could read up on what you wanted and follow it up with a little history of the area including Afghanistan whose displaced because of the war are trapped in the floods in Pakistan.
Gilani: 20 Million Affected by Pakistan's Floods
Cholera confirmed in Pakistani flood disaster

Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Saturday that 20 million people have been affected by the worst floods in his country's history. Impact of Pakistan floods as bad as 1947 partition, says prime minister

Flood-ravaged Pakistan cancels Independence Day events

knowing how we have indiscriminately set Muslim borders in many Instances and have caused these problems ourselves by dividing and cutting off whole peoples I decided to once again look at the forming of modern Afghanistan, the border there, and the forming of Pakistan from India.

First Afghanistan: Afghanistan is an ancient land. Its early history, like the early history of the republics of Central Asia to the east of the Caspian Sea, is virtually the same as the history of ancient Iran. even knowing this I was pretty surprised looking at the failures of the Brits and others to impose there will there over the years to no avail and here we are attempting to do it once again and it will fail once again. You will want to read the rich history of the region. I was impressed. Anyway: In 1893, when the Durand line was drawn and modern Afghanistan was created, the region of present-day Islamic Republic of Afghanistan was populated by two main ethnic groups: Indo-European and Turkish. Some pockets of Arab nomads, Hindus, and Jews also lived in the region mostly close to the Panj River valley. The Indo-European population was a continuation of the dominant Indo-Iranian branch in the north and west centered in the cities of Bukhara and Tehran, respectively. The Hindu Kush mountain divided this Indo-Iranian population into four ethnic zones: Pushtuns to the south and southeast; Tajiks to the northeast of the Hindu Kush range; Parsiwans to the west; and Baluch to the southwest

The Pushtuns, who later (1950's) made an unsuccessful attempt at creating a Pushtunistan, numbered about 13,000,000. They populated what is present-day southern Afghanistan and the Tribal Agencies and Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan. The Tajiks, over 10,000,000, populated what are the present-day republics of Tajikistan, southern Uzbekistan, and northeastern Afghanistan. The Parsiwan, about 600,000, populated the western region of present-day Afghanistan. And the Baluch, numbering 100,000 populated southwestern Afghanistan. The Turkic population lived in the north. Ethnically, they were Uzbeks, Kyrgyzes, and Turkmens who had entered Central Asia some as early as the 11th century, others during the 15th and 16th centuries. In addition, there was a relatively large population of Hazarahs who lived in the central highlands of present-day Afghanistan. The Hazarahs and Aimaq are usually regarded as remnants of the Mongol hordes that invaded Central Asia in the 13th century.

The Afghanistan that emerged from the Russian/British agreement of 1893 consists of partial populations from among the groups mentioned above, especially after the expansion of the Uzbek group at the expense of the Tajik. Afghanistan's present-day ethnic mix includes some 8 million Pushtuns; 5.6 million Tajiks; 1.5 million Hazarahs; 1.5 million Uzbeks; 60,000 Parsiwans; 125,000 Turkmens; and 200,000 Baluchis. Several thousand Kyrgyzes, Arabs, and other ethnic groups also make Afghanistan their home.

Along side this Britain Broke up India forming amongst other things Pakistan also dividing whole Religions and peoples at their whim!

Pakistan was created for a very simple reason: religion. The sprawling land mass that was colonial India under British rule was partitioned into three distinct places. Each one of these was created because the majority of its inhabitants worshiped one of two religions, Hinduism and Islam. This happened in 1947, and trouble has ensued ever since. The independence movement in India began in earnest in the last half of the 19th Century. It then gained strength in the early part of the 20th Century, as nationalism swept Asia and Africa as it had Europe a century before. Crusaders such as Mohandas Gandhi began campaigning for independence from Britain. The independence campaign gained international focus, thanks in large part to the actions of Gandhi and a few other brave people, and the pressure was finally too much for Britain to ignore.

India, however, was not just one country full of like-minded people when it came to worship. Two fundamentally different religions dominated the soulful landscape of the world's second most populous country. The conflict between followers of those two faiths transcended the partition from Colonial India into India and Pakistan. Hinduism, one of the world's oldest religions, had millions of adherents living in India. Islam did as well, though its history was much shorter. The British partitioned Colonial India according to population concerns. India was then and continues to be populated mostly by Hindus. Pakistan, on the other hand, had and continues to have a mostly Muslim population. However, neither of these are homogenous, and the partition separated many people from their families.

Much like the building of the Berlin Wall did, the partitioning of India created more problems than it solved. India was a mostly Hindu country, yes, but it had a sizable Muslim minority. The same was true, in reverse, for Pakistan, which was actually two landscapes to begin with. In 1947, Pakistan was actually West Pakistan and East Pakistan, with India squarely in the middle. India divided both Pakistan's without a way to connect the two. East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971. The sudden division of the colony into two separate countries led to mass exodus. Muslims went to Pakistan and Hindus to India. Some estimates put the "population exchange" at more than 14 million. The exoduses led to mass chaos and mass hysteria, often accompanied by violence. In many cases, faith-based massacres occurred behind country lines. Why was Pakistan formed

** It just blows me away knowing Africa was divvied up at the Berlin Conference and after Colonization ended new lines were drawn up dividing Muslim people and others that hate each other, and what we did in the same regard to the middle east, and here with Pakistan and Afghanistan, I continue to be blown away that there are those that stupidly say we did nothing wrong! We did nothing to deserve 9/11, well! We did everything period! That aside I refuse to believe that we think we are going to impose our will in Pakistan and Afghanistan despite the history and what we have done. We have not and will not be able to separate Muslim blood or make one get along with the other. We are succeeding at digging the hole deeper and deeper!

India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, will there ever be peace there or anywhere else in Islam where we have interfered taken what we wanted and reset the boundaries forcing people of difference to live amongst each other, compete, fight, and kill each other? I doubt it!

James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com