Afghanistan's tyranny of the minority

Writing in the New York Times on Afghanistan, Selig Harrison of the Ploughshares-funded Center for International Policy cautions that failing to recognize the “growing alienation of the country’s largest ethnic group, the Pashtun tribes,” could pose a major problem, with limited representation in the Tajik-controlled government and attacks on Taliban strongholds within the Pashtun region. Harrison concludes, “Pashtun nationalism alone does not explain the Taliban’s strength, which is fueled by drug money, Islamist fervor, corrupt warlords, hatred of the American occupation and the hidden hand of Pakistani intelligence agencies. But the psychological cement that holds the disparate Taliban factions together is opposition to Tajik dominance in Kabul. Until the power of the Panjshiris is curbed, no amount of American money or manpower will bring the insurgency to an end.”