Loyalties and priorities go in the following descending order: Family, clan, tribe, alliance of tribes, ethnicity. This chain or priorities is never broken or there is war.

The ruler places trusted family members in key positions that will insure security and profit for the family business. Clan members also play a role in this. Further away from the center of power but loyal to the ruler is the tribe, which insures the ruling tribe stays on top. The ruler makes deals with other tribes to preserve harmony and expand the family business. There is no separation between government and business interests. It’s all in the family.

In Afghanistan, the ruler is Karzai, a Pashtun. The Pashtuns are 40% of the total population. Not all Pashtuns support Karzai, many Pashtuns, if not most, support the Taliban. The Karzai clan has a good business going, a flood of foreign money comes daily into the country. The clan takes its cut, then practices Reagan’s trickle-down economics that reaches down to some allied tribes.

Of course, little, if any, of this money reaches the illiterate farmer, who is part of the majority of the population.

Ms. Clinton wants the Karzai family to cut into its profits and that way cut its own throat, as the only reason for loyalty is money.

If the U.S. starts giving money to the peasants directly, it will lose whatever little support it has from the Pashtun faction that is anti-Taliban.

In the meantime, the northern tribes are watching. They are already cashing in on arms sales, the opium trade, and the more traditional business of hijacking cargoes.

Does anyone remember the good old days, in the seventies, when adventure tourism in Afghanistan was a booming business?

There is a lesson to be learned here. After the departure of the British in the nineteenth century and 1979, just before the Soviet Army entered Afghanistan, there was peace in this colorful and incredibly beautiful country.

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About the author: Alexey Braguine spent four years in Vietnam and Laos during the American involvement there. He has also worked in the Middle East and has visited Pakistan-Afghan border areas. He is the author of Kingmaker, a geopolitical thriller.

http://www.freewebs.com/braguine/

Home Page

Amazon.com: Kingmaker: Alexey Braguine: Books

Email: Braguine@aol.com

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