Afghan Genesis: Whose Taliban are They Anyway???.....................
“General Stanley McChrystal said coalition forces were working to stop Iran from giving material help to the Taliban who have stepped up the campaign to force foreign forces out of Afghanistan in a nine-year conflict. "The training that we have seen occurs inside Iran with fighters moving inside Iran," he said at a news conference in response to a question on Iran's influence. "The weapons that we have received come from Iran into Afghanistan." The United States, battling a Taliban insurgency at its worst, has frequently accused Iran of providing some assistance to insurgents in Afghanistan, although Washington says it has not been nearly as important a factor as in Iraq, Iran's other neighbor, where U.S. troops are waging war…….”
Strange bedfellows: The Taliban started their control of Afghanistan in the 1990s by publicly slitting the throats of several Iranian diplomats stationed there (I believe it was at Herat). Only Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Pakistan recognized the Taliban regime in Kabul at the time. Just before that, the Taliban also started their political life, their genesis, essentially with American arms funneled through the ruling Pakistani military intelligence (ISI) and financed by Saudi Arabia. At a yet earlier stage, the Taliban were sent on their way to sectarian and religious hatred at a young age at religious madrassas (schools) established and financed by Wahhabi Salafi shaikhs with petro-money.
Now Hamid Karzai is publicly toying with the idea of joining forces with his fellow Pashtuns, and Western sources report that the Iranians are dabbling with aid and cooperation for the Taliban. It is all possible. After all reports tell us that the creation of Hamas was instigated by, alternatively, the Israelis and the Saudis to counter the secular Palestinian leftist groups (and the kleptocrats of Fatah). Yet Hamas, the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood group, is now close to the Shi’a Iranians.
Reports have also told us in recent weeks that the West in Afghanistan are seeking “moderate” Taliban to make deals with, something the Iranians dread, given their cooperation in 2001 with the US-led forces. But that cooperation was scant weeks before George W Bush foolishly lumped them with Kim Jong-Il and Saddam Hussein in an Axis of Evil. That was long before we had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Ahmadinejad.
Cheers
mhg
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