Civil War in Afghanistan

Craig Murray's article, "Civil War Certain as "Afghan National Army" Now over 60% Tajik" had me revisiting a couple of my own posts and, with Martin P Hoh, resigning back in October 2009 from his post as the senior US civilian in Zabul province, a Taleban stronghold in Afghanistan, saying that "the United States is supporting a corrupt government in what is essentially a thirty-five year civil war", as "certain"as civil war now is, it is and always was, de facto, a civil war even if there might have been efforts by General Karl Eikenberry to have the Afghan army reflect the country's ethnic composition.

Having said that Mr Murray's article certainly provides us with food for thought. Here we have a "national" army 60% of which is made up of an ethnic group that constitutes at the most 35% of the country's population. Furthermore, it is an army which is accompanying Western troops into what are overwhelmingly Pashtun tribal areas. The enemy is quickly identified, the civil war proceeds apace and when the time comes to cut and run Karzai will, as Craig Murray writes, "be safe in Switzerland counting his looted cash"; hitting the nail on the head, spot on and while the United States is confronted with its next "Vietnam", the man with the shawls will most definitely prefer the Nguyễn Văn Thiệu option to sharing Najibullah's fate.