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Abstract
The article asserts that the current situation in Afghanistan could have been quite different. Well before 9/11, Abdul Haq, a Pushtun and a veteran commander in the war against the Russians, put forward a plan to overthrow the Taliban from within, a plan which had significant support inside Afghanistan. Haq, who was subsequently killed by the Taliban, was ignored by the West, which chose instead to intervene militarily, to support the war lords of the Northern Alliance and thus to marginalise the Pushtuns. The 2002 Loya Jirga was the crucial moment for the West, which failed to realise that Pakistan had its own, very different agenda.
Notes
Lucy Morgan Edwards, State-building in Afghanistan – a case showing the limits?, International Review of the Red Cross, Vol 92, Number 880 December 2010
FT, pp 1, 19 March 2012
‘Soldiers of God; with Islamic warriors in Afghanistan and Pakistan', (2001) Vintage books.
Gutman, R. ‘How we missed the Story: Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and the hijacking of Afghanistan’ (2008) USIP, Washington DC
Tomsen, Peter. ‘Afghanistan's Wars’, Public Affairs, New York, 2011
Tomsen, P. The Wars of Afghanistan: Messianic Terrorism, Tribal conflict and the failure of Great Powers, 2011, Public Affairs
in Gutman, R. (see note 3)
Cordovez, D. and Harrison, S. ‘Out of Afghanistan,’ 2008. OUP