5 thoughts on “A Modest Proposal”

  1. Surprised that this was such a shallow attempt to rationalize the Pak-Afghan problem. Expected more. The two biggest obstacles were not addressed. One is the depth of the Pak fear of Hindu hegemony. Breaking up the provinces would make them weaker against India, especially in the east, in Sindh, where their agricultural and industrial strength lies. But an even bigger obstacle is the Pashto. They were divided by Durrand and his eponymous line, cutting Pashtunistan in two, along the mountain ridge. That made sense for the Raj, but none for the Pashto. So any realignment, to make sense and have a chance of success, would have to take a nice chunk of Afghanistan. But that idea is silly, since it would make the Pashto happy at the expense of the Afghan central government, and those boys are making way too much money to give it up. Ask Karzai if he is Pashto or Afghan. His tribe, even his life, means less to him than his wealth.

  2. The problem with breaking up Pakistan as proposed is that the new Punjabi nation would be just as untrustworthy as the current Pakistan. Perhaps even more so, because they would be many times as desperate in their fight with India (losing the gas and mineral wealth from Balochistan, as well as aid from America, would cripple them). A nation that already supports terrorism, when pushed even further into the corner, will support it even more. Look at the Palestinians.

    The only medium-term solution I see is de-partition of India. The Indian states of Punjab and Sindh (with their cultural and blood-relatives of Pakistanis living just over the border) would be in a much better position to integrate them into the whole. Would there be resistance? Hell yes. But Indian states actually enjoy a great deal more freedom under India’s federal structure than US states do. They would be largely free to chart their own course as long as it doesn’t involve trying to blow up New Dehli.

    And that would allow us to know someone we trust (India, and more or less) is keeping an eye on things in Islamabad.

    The Pashtuns would go to Afghanistan.

  4. Nuke ’em all and let God sort them out! … Use neutron bombs on the oil fields … Then we don’t have to worry about boundaries!

  5. The problem with offering to break up someone else’s country is that most of the time, they tend to resent the idea. When they have nuclear weapons, it gets even more complicated.

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