Word: pashtun
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...fact, the territory at the heart of Talibanistan--a heavily forested band of mountains that is officially called North and South Waziristan--has never fully submitted to the rule of any country. The colonial British were unable to conquer the region's Pashtun tribes and allowed them to run their own affairs according to local custom. In exchange, the tribesmen protected the subcontinental empire from northern invaders. Following independence in 1947, Pakistan continued the arrangement...
...recruits for extremists. His charge that the Taliban insurgency works out of Pakistan is backed by NATO, which underestimated the scale of the challenge when it took over Afghan counterinsurgency duties from the U.S., but it is strenuously denied by Musharraf, who claims that Karzai has disenfranchised the majority Pashtun ethnic group in Afghanistan...
...tacit, for the Taliban in Afghanistan neatly sums up the deadly game played by Musharraf ever since 9/11. Pakistan had nurtured the Taliban in the early '90s, and then actively helped it fight its way to power in Kabul. Not only was there a natural affinity between the ethnic Pashtun movement and Pakistan's own Pashtun communities in the westernmost provinces that had helped support the Afghan anti-Soviet jihad, but Pakistan saw the Taliban as a protector of its own regional interests, particularly in light of Indian support for its rivals in the Northern Alliance...
...their support structure." Yet many U.S. officers are worried that as soon as the U.S. forces return to their bases, the Taliban fighters will reclaim the mountains and villages. Few Afghans want the Taliban to return to power, but ancient tribal ties are not so easily broken among the Pashtun who are the Taliban's supporters...
...would be a heartwarming gesture if we extended U.S. citizenship to the Pashtun shepherd and his family...