Westerner's acrimony towards Pashtuns

[Toramana]

Hahaha----I personally heard this from an ANP walla. Now the above video confirms that Madeline Albright is capable of saying what Asfandiyar Wali Khan told.

[Toramana]

"The remedy proposed by the eight is more controversial: ‘decentralizing the political system’ in Afghanistan and ‘election of [provincial] Governors’. ‘[E]lected Governors and provincial councils should also have authority for such things as creating budgets and generating revenue, overseeing police and healthcare, as well as establishing educational authority, if they so desire.’ Rohrabacher even went as far as saying that ‘the overly centralized government power structure in Afghanistan is contrary to that country’s culture’.**Federalism has been a long-standing political demand in parts of the Afghan north. Dostum’s Jombesh has been promoting this more openly over the past year or so and it has also become more popular among some other political groups among Tajiks and Hazaras, not least because of what is seen by them as the increasingly Pashtun-centric course set by the Kabul government. At the same time, many Pashtuns, including those who are critical of Karzai, see decentralisation as a euphemism for federalism, and federalism as the first step to separatism and the division of the country."

‘Human rights in the Taliban-controlled areas would also probably be abysmal, including for minorities’ but ‘the sky over Pashtun Afghanistan would be dark with manned and unmanned coalition aircraft — targeting not only terrorists but, as necessary, the new Taliban government in all its dimensions’. He added that ‘Karzai and his associates would almost certainly resist partition [my emphasis] — and might not remain in power.’

http://aan-afghanistan.com/index.asp?id=2449

[BarakzaiAbdali]

"The remedy proposed by the eight is more controversial: ‘decentralizing the political system’ in Afghanistan and ‘election of [provincial] Governors’. ‘[E]lected Governors and provincial councils should also have authority for such things as creating budgets and generating revenue, overseeing police and healthcare, as well as establishing educational authority, if they so desire.’ Rohrabacher even went as far as saying that ‘the overly centralized government power structure in Afghanistan is contrary to that country’s culture’.**Federalism has been a long-standing political demand in parts of the Afghan north. Dostum’s Jombesh has been promoting this more openly over the past year or so and it has also become more popular among some other political groups among Tajiks and Hazaras, not least because of what is seen by them as the increasingly Pashtun-centric course set by the Kabul government. At the same time, many Pashtuns, including those who are critical of Karzai, see decentralisation as a euphemism for federalism, and federalism as the first step to separatism and the division of the country."

http://aan-afghanistan.com/index.asp?id=2449

Once again, read the Saleh article and re-emphasize the part I bolded in red.

Eye of the beholder principle. In the convulsions of war and stabilization attempts the sloaganeering began by Karzai and his folks. Karzai saw himself as a harbinger of 1) A strong Afghan state 2) A resurgence of the South lands but not at the expense of the northerners necessarily. But he forgot who exactly rolled into Kabul and who were the men on the ground, and who put Talibans in cannisters and shipped them across the country. So then, to focus on goal 1) the jargon began, you even see it here. When truths of ethnic conflict and bias are discussed, suddenly they activate and like automatons go: "There is no inter ethnic conflict - all is well - we are like unicorn children holding hands and doing ring around the rosey all day and koombaya all night - this is slander." This was to ease and placate the minds of Dostum, Fahim, Saleh, and Zia Mossoud. Karzai however was not dealing with folks who shared a modicum of that shang ri la vision - he was dealing with men, who unlike him, had held guns and used them to kill people. They got their prize jewel, and there was no way in heaven or hell they were going to let this go. No, in fact they started to expand their desires and discuss control of the armed forces and integrating large swaths of their militias into the future ANA.

So then a jaded Karzai with his brother in tow in Kandahar, began to try and strategically "force stabilize" this domination. This was cajoled along by a war weary US that has begun to realize disenfranchesizing the whole south was not going to work either unless they were willing to be bloody and brutal about it.

Sensing the US's war weariness and Karzai sudden touch with reality - Saleh and his ilk are chasing a PERCEIVED Pashtun tilt in Kabul.

Saleh is not an idiot either and is a very potent enemy. His goal is to stave off Pashtun centricity BEFORE it happens.

[Khostai]

lol, i was but i never heard men there saying, 'iam pashtun', and thumping their chests, like they do on her

That's true faye, my father told me that actualy becuase of the war, the ethnic difrences became biger, back in the day you hardly heard peopel talking about pashtun or tajik. Most of the Dari speakers always said that they are Afghan, its actualy recently that those peopel are calling themself nowdays Tajik. But I think when peace comes, this whole "I am PAshtun or I am Tajiks so thats way I am so specialy" mentality will go away.....

[Khostai]

Funny how in the past, I always heard that the big problems in Afghanistan is due to that the goverment is not centralized... And now they say its becuase its centralized all this problems are raising -_-.
The bigest problem is that stupid incompetent peopel have the power, meanwhile the honest and peopel who cold make a difrence are left out.

[Khostai]

And sometimes reading this kind of articles I get the feeling that the Pashtuns in Afghanistan are getting the role like the Punjbis in Pakistan. We are being hated by other minoritys that want more power. The same whith Punjabis they are blamed for almost everything and are hated for there ethnocentrism....

[Maiwand]

http://forums.islamicawakening.com/f18/tribes-taking-arms-against-the-taliban-59752/

[NokiaWnW]

What do you think are the reasons for that although for the past two centuries, some Western countries have used Pashtun lands and human resource to expand their hegemonic power/influence (Great Game, Cold War, Afghan Jehad/Fasad, and now war on terrorism).

Are the reason for this acrimony rooted in religion, race, and perception of Pashtuns as tribal, conservative, religious lot that resist domination or what?

Stupidity and barbarism.... from historical accounts, Pashtuns were always used. First by an Ismaeli Tajik and ''terrorist'', called Pir Roshan, than by some Mughals, by Rajputs and than by westerners and in the 70s till today by Pakis. Why does it worked? Because Pashtuns don´t have any linked culture or civilisation to their neighbours...no education, no identity... so everyone can buy you. The Brits used the Mohammadzai nationalism to control Afghanistan, the RUssians the Ghilzai nationalism and the US use the Popalzai nationalism...