[Peace-discuss] What are we doing in AfPak?

[C. G. Estabrook]

QUESTION: A 2008 Washington Post editorial [said] Afghanistan's "strategic 
importance pales beside that of Iraq, which lies at the geopolitical center of 
the Middle East and contains some of the world's largest oil reserves." The 
Afghanistan Study Group report advocates power sharing and downsizing; they also 
advocate ending military operations in southern Afghanistan. What are state 
planners currently hoping to accomplish?

NOAM CHOMSKY: It seems to me that by now they are trying to find a way to 
extricate themselves in a way that will enable them to declare victory, and to 
keep a client state in power as much as possible. Not unlike what the Russians 
were trying to do in the late '80s.

 From <http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20101119.htm>.