Supporting the Afghans was the lesser of two evils...the Russians could in no way be allowed to get Afghanistan. And let's not forget, Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, was one of the rebels we helped...and he helped us later overthrow the Taliban. The Taliban came to power in the late 90's...and not because we helped them in the early 80's, but because we stopped paying attention to Afghanistan later, just like we're not paying attention to Somalia now.
As for the BLA, they may be nutcases, but so what? They're a small ethnic group that will never control all of Iran anyway. The point is to give the mullahs something to worry about at home.
I hope you are right. But I don't feel too comfortable when the U.S. starts backing the lesser of two evils. Our record sure doesn't paint a pretty picture of those we backed.
The Baluchis overlap into Pakistan as well.
I believe that the delinquent states in the Middle East need to be dimembered.
Iraq into Shia, Sunni, Kurd; Iran into Kurd, Baluchi, Azeri, Sunni; and Pakistan itself into Baluchi, Pashtun, Sind etc.
In this way there would be a large number of smaller, ethnically and religiosly homogenous states, none of which would be large enough to be a threat to the region.
Nitpicking, but no he didn't (Massoud)--he was dead (offed right before 9/11). And while we were right to use the Northern Alliance to drive out the Taliban, some of them are causing problems with the new government.
LeoWindhorse, not to be to much of an apologist for the Turks--especially in light of their increasingly islamist leaning, but I thought the whole reason they "stabbed us in the back" with our invasion plans was because of fear of the Kurds being able to operate with their Turkish brethren to increase the uprising. And I doubt many Iraqi bad guys escaped through the north--at the very least, they'd have to pass through those very same Kurds even if the Turks were sympathetic to them (for some reason). After all, they could have gone west or east a lot easier.
While I like the idea of the Kurds getting their own state (it'd be most natural if we'd split Iraq into three separate entities after we toppled Saddam), I don't think a country should be criticized for acting in its own interest (I sure wish our government would act in ours--i.e. the borders, Iran, NK, Venezuela, Somalia, etc.).