Letters to the Editor
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Here's a little back story as to why this problem keeps getting worse
Regarding this fact:
Those areas are ethnically and politically linked to southern Afghanistan, which has seen a resurgence of guerrilla violence.
There are two reasons why this is true. First reason -- the treaty that established the border between Afghanistan and India, (before Pakistan existed) was drawn with little any regard for tribal territory. That was typical colonialist boo-boo that we see all over Africa as well.
Then along came the royal Pushtun prince Mohammed Daoud, who dreamed of reclaiming the north of Pakistan for Afghanistan and renaming the whole thing Pushtunistan.
Daoud took over in a bloodless coup in April 1973. Declassified documents show that the Nixon State Dept. was warned in advance about the coup and helped get the King out of the country so the coup could happen.
(That's an interesting story by the way. According to the State Dept. documents, the King was hit in the face with a volleyball and suffered a hematoma. Some American doctor working at the Noor Eye Clinic told him his hematoma needed special treatment in an Italian hospital, and off he flew.)
So Daoud takes over. He's officially a modernizer with state socialist leanings with deep concern for women's rights and close ties with the Soviet Union.
Except his real obsession was Pushtuntistan. That obsession is what came between Daoud and the Soviet government and helped lead to Daoud's demise in a very non-bloodless coup in 1978.
Daoud's modernization program for Afghanistan also fell victim to his obsession with Pushtunistan. Instead of making gradual changes and bringing the population on board through education and incentives, he threw everyone in prison who disagreed with him.
His government was so hostile and repressive towards mullahs and religious Pushtuns that many of them MOVED ACROSS THE BORDER INTO NORTHERN PAKISTAN, conveniently strengthening Daoud's claim that northern Pakistan was part of a Pushtun homeland and needed to be returned to Afghanistan.
Even more religious Pushtuns were driven across the border into Pakistan after the Red Army showed up in 1979.
And then when we started bombing, well, unfortunately, I think we added to the problem as well.