South Asia map exercise in US causes concern in Pakistan (That US wants a break-up of Pakistan)

Mint ^ | Jane Perlez

[Cronos]

Islamabad: A redrawn map of South Asia has been making the rounds among some Pakistani elite. It shows their country truncated, reduced to an elongated sliver of land with the big bulk of India to the east, and an enlarged Afghanistan to the west. That the map was first circulated as a theoretical exercise in some American neoconservative circles matters little here. It has fuelled a belief among Pakistanis, including members of the armed forces, that what the US really wants is the break-up of Pakistan, the only Muslim country with nuclear arms

[Cronos]

really cut up

[Cronos]

“One of the biggest fears of the Pakistani military planners is the collaboration between India and Afghanistan to destroy Pakistan,” said a senior Pakistani government official involved in strategic planning who insisted on anonymity as per diplomatic custom. “Some people feel the United States is colluding in this." That notion may strike Americans as strange coming from an ally of 50 years. But as the incoming Obama administration tries to coax greater cooperation from Pakistan in the fight against militancy, it can hardly be ignored.

Pakistan, a 61-year-old country marbled by ethnic fault lines, is a collection of just four provinces, which often seem to have little in common. Virtually everyone of its borders, drawn almost arbitrarily in the last gasps of the British Empire, is disputed with its neighbours, not least Pakistan's bitter and much larger rival, India.

[Cronos]

Personally, the top part of Afghanistan also needs to be splintered — the native Tajiks, Uzbeks and Turkmen adjoining Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan should be joined to their homelands. The Irani peoples around Herat are being joined to Iran as per this map. Also the Hazaras (descendents of Genghis Khan) living in Bamiyan would need a separate land distinct from the Pashtuns / Pathans. Afghanistan could then be purely Pushtun.

[Cheburashka]

Well, the Obamessiah said he was going to invade Pakistan...

[gandalftb]

Good post. The Pastuns need a completely separate homeland from the Punjabis and Sindhis. A federation of nation-states would really stabilize the whole region, including Jammu and Kashmir.

Most Pakis are worn out with all the fighting and surprisingly are agreeing with the map.

Kashmir and Jammu can be settled, that needs to get done first.

BTW, Afghanistan does not recognize the border with Pakistan.

[gandalftb]

The biggest obstacle are the Feudals that rule Pakistan, the deep economic/political influence of the military, and the high degree of nationalization of what should be private industry.

Their need for loans from the IMF may finally force privatization and get the military out of the government.

33,000 active duty officers work in other government positions also. The military is the largest land-owner/landlord in Pakistan.

BTW, the ISI just shut down it's internal political division. Change is a coming.

[swarthyguy]

This was part of Ralph Peters map first put out a couple of years ago.

It makes a lot of sense.

What makes me chuckle about the LibLefties was their apocleptic fits about this map. Too stupid to understand history, they treated this as some affront to legality, when in reality the current borders were drawn as a result of the dissolution of first, the Ottoman Empire, and then the British Empire.

They didn’t get the irony of so called progressive liberal types having a epileptic fit about these new borders, and supporting the current borders drawn up by colonialists.

There’s a laugh everywhere if one cares to look.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Just what we need. More muslim countries.

[MimirsWell]

I kind of agree with you on that. It just makes the stage ripe for Russia and China to extend their tentacles in these areas. Any such map will have to wait till India is strong and relations between India and the US are cemented in a less opportunistic and more long-term kind of a way.

[SunkenCiv]

Should have done this in Iraq as well.

Pakistan can stop drone raids: air force chief
Reuters via Yahoo | 11/25/08 | Zeeshan Haide
Posted on 11/25/2008 5:18:38 AM PST by Abathar
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2137975/posts

Air force chief says Pakistan capable of shooting down US drones
monstersandcritics.com | Nov 25, 2008
Posted on 11/25/2008 1:26:01 PM PST by moreofthesame
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2138265/posts