01-07-2014, 08:38 PM
Pakistan is really at least two incompatible nations:
* The ethnic Punjabi people whose ancestors were forcibly converted to the Mohameddan sect with the eastward crusades of the Umayyad Army starting in 711 A.D.
* The ethnic Federally Administrated Tribal areas, which have a significant Pashtun people in the mountainous and ungovernable regions that saddle Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the Mujahadeen heartland, now known as Taliban by many, although there are scores of different warlords and mini armies with varying loyalties saturating the FATAs.
Pakistan is basically in a state of war with itself, and in a cold war with India. It is an Islamic state, but with varying degrees of compliance to strict interpretations of Islam, since the Punjabis were historically Hindu, and most of them migrated to India after the split when India gained its independence from the waning British Empire post-WWII.
The region has ancient historical precedence for disloyalty to the Indian sub-continental people because one of the ancient Kings conspired with Alexander the Great in order to further his interests. Sitting on the gates between Afghanistan and India, it has been central to agriculture and trade between historical and legendary empires, where geography entrenches and hardens peoples in the foothills and mountains, while the low-land river valley peoples focus on crop cultivation.
Trying to make sense of the region requires basically a lifetime of study, and China has extremely significant regional interests in investing in Pakistan to act as strategic depth against their biggest arch-rival, India, which is why China gave Pakistan nuclear weapons and is a major provider of war material to Pakistan.
Short story, providing Federal Pakistani Army with sniper rifles looks good on paper at keeping the balance of power with the FATA and insurgents, but you also have jihadi loyalists inside the Pakistani ISI (Intelligence), who even wired money to Mohammed Atta pre-9/11. That was their ISI General Mahmoud, who flew to the US so he could watch it unfold even with a front row seat in D.C.
* The ethnic Punjabi people whose ancestors were forcibly converted to the Mohameddan sect with the eastward crusades of the Umayyad Army starting in 711 A.D.
* The ethnic Federally Administrated Tribal areas, which have a significant Pashtun people in the mountainous and ungovernable regions that saddle Afghanistan and Pakistan. This is the Mujahadeen heartland, now known as Taliban by many, although there are scores of different warlords and mini armies with varying loyalties saturating the FATAs.
Pakistan is basically in a state of war with itself, and in a cold war with India. It is an Islamic state, but with varying degrees of compliance to strict interpretations of Islam, since the Punjabis were historically Hindu, and most of them migrated to India after the split when India gained its independence from the waning British Empire post-WWII.
The region has ancient historical precedence for disloyalty to the Indian sub-continental people because one of the ancient Kings conspired with Alexander the Great in order to further his interests. Sitting on the gates between Afghanistan and India, it has been central to agriculture and trade between historical and legendary empires, where geography entrenches and hardens peoples in the foothills and mountains, while the low-land river valley peoples focus on crop cultivation.
Trying to make sense of the region requires basically a lifetime of study, and China has extremely significant regional interests in investing in Pakistan to act as strategic depth against their biggest arch-rival, India, which is why China gave Pakistan nuclear weapons and is a major provider of war material to Pakistan.
Short story, providing Federal Pakistani Army with sniper rifles looks good on paper at keeping the balance of power with the FATA and insurgents, but you also have jihadi loyalists inside the Pakistani ISI (Intelligence), who even wired money to Mohammed Atta pre-9/11. That was their ISI General Mahmoud, who flew to the US so he could watch it unfold even with a front row seat in D.C.