so chapati mysterywallahs, wake up, you are being beguiled by the white devil. the kaltkreig is still there, it is now globalisation, the ami’s want bases in poland, the russians are tenderly letting their opinion be known, and the poor countries, the strategically important countries are needed for military bases to protect economic interests, need i say which resources? military presence all over the globe is required, and the downtrodden just get bombed down to rubble. any attempt of someone rising their head in form of resistance, which usually manifests iself in a bizarre fashion and strange alliances, is quashed with plenty big force and with superficially meaningful justifications. don’t be beguiled. karzai is a de facto puppet. northern alliance are de facto installed elements in the government of afghanistan. birth is a painful, strenuous, bloddy and sometimes fatal process, therefore allow this government to be bourne through the usual pains, through natural evolution - a revoltion, but not through puppetry.

I’m reading Barnett Rubin’s “The Fragmentation of Afghanistan: State Formation and Collapse in the International System” these days, and he quotes independent sources that credit Massoud with causing a lot more damage to the Soviets than Hikmatyar ever did… when you realize that this guy never got the sort of aid Hikmatyar got, the achievement appears even more impressive…

The book, and the website Afgha.com mention two periods of relative peace with the Soviets… one occured in 1983/84, when Massoud and the Soviets reached a truce, the second, just before the withdrawl of troops, when President Najibullah offered him the vice Presidency in 1987 in what was supposed to be a unified government… Massoud refused, but Rubin suggests its because he knew the PDPA’s days were numbered…

Time for Objectivity again… I like the guy immensely,but:

1). Massoud joined Hikmatyar and Rabbani in Pakistan in 1974, having escaped Doud’s crackdown on “Islamist” (whatever that means) students and professors… in 1975, egged on by the ISI and Hikmatyar, Massoud tried to start an uprising in Panjshir, which wasn’t supported by the population (partly because his reputation was of a spoilt brat)and he had to flee back… He was 22, yes, but aren’t you sensible enough at 22 to realize that accepting help and instructions from a foreign power and then starting an uprising in your own country is just plain wrong, especially when its Pakistan where the instructions are coming from?

2). Throughout the war, Massoud recieved arms from the ISI… granted that the ISI favoured their boy Hikmatyar, but the Jamiat recieved a substantial amount nonetheless…

3). When Kabul finally fell in 1992, Massoud was unable to rein in his fighters… from 1992 to 1996, his troops were condemned as much as the others for the loot and plunder and the rapes that went on…

4). Massoud was a big part of the government in one way or the other from 1992 to 1996, but his liberal and tolerant brand of Islam was nowhere to be seen… in an interview I read in 2001, he had condemned the burqa, and his wife was proud of the fact that she didn’t wear one, but one of the first decrees of their government in 1992 was to order women to put it on… burqas weren’t exactly extinct in Panjshir and Badakhshan after 1996 either…

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However, as events in the recent past prove, Massoud soon fell out with the ISI and during the last few years spoke out time and again against the ISI’s total domination of the Taliban, and of course OBL’s presence in the country… one interview I read quoted him , “I’m not fighting the Taliban, I’m fighting the Pakistan Army”… yeah, Massoud was alright!!

None of us are perfect, and Massoud learnt from his mistakes… I suppose these human failings make for an altogether more romantic figure… A former architecture student, the son of an Army officer, a war hero, a fluent French speaker, a lover of poetry who is particularly fond of Hafiz, living somewhere in the mountains… just wonderful …I loved the way he wore the Pakol too, like a beret…

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It is interesting how Massoud’s image in Pakistan has changed through the years… he used to be a brave commander, and now he’s an alleged homosexual and paedophile who is a closet atheist… of course in Pakistan you’re a decent fellow only as long as you support our Na-Pak Fauj’s “vision” of the region…

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Looking forward to hearing from Shakir too…

Inter-ethnic struggles in Afghanistan are fascinating, much more so than the ones in Pakistan… okay, “fascinating” might not be the right word, but you know what I mean…

Isn’t it surprising though, that throughout this region, more people belonging to a group which has a country of its own live outside that country’s borders than inside?

There are more Azeris in Iran than in Azerbaijan… There are more Tajiks in Afghanistan than there are in Tajikistan (one might add that the ones in Tajikistan are quite Turko-Mongol looking through inter-breeding with Uzbeks, and it is the Tajiks of Afghanistan who have the sort of features you’d expect from Caucasoid Aryans/Iranians)… there are more Pashtuns in Pakistan than in Afghanistan (the three major Pashtun urban centers in terms of population are Peshawar, Karachi and Dubai!)… and there are more sub-continental Muslims living outside Pakistan than inside!

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You’ve got a nice blog going… I’ve been reading for a while and only now have I decided to jump into the fray… I look forward to contributing regularly…