Afghanistan: Cut and Run Is the Worst Option

By Amir Taheri

The problem is further complicated because the insurgents can always use the vast deserts stretching into Pakistan’s Balochistan and Iranian Sistan as a hinterland in which to hide, recuperate and rearm.

To make matters worse, the sphere of lawlessness now stretches into virtually the whole of southeast Iran and large chunks of Pakistani Balochistan. On the Iranian side, a growing armed insurgency by Sistani and Balochi tribes is diverting the attention of the authorities from monitoring the border with Afghanistan. On the Pakistani side, the recent killing by government forces of Akbar Bugti, the veteran Baloch nationalist leader, in his mountain hideout, has generated a new upsurge of sympathy for anti-West groups, including the Taleban.

http://www.newageislam.com/afghanistan--cut-and-run-is-the-worst-option/islam,terrorism-and-jihad/d/49