Opinion/background re Obama’s War in Afghanistan, why Pashtuns feel neglected and victimized

ISLAMABAD // For the umpteenth time, I was watching Rambo III (the one based in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan), courtesy of the local cable operator’s penchant for “full action” movies. I was thinking how to explain the sense of victimisation prevalent among Pakistan’s embattled Pashtun (or Pukhtoon as they are known in Pakistan).

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Every day on television, what we are shown – courtesy of the Pashtuns’ collective failure to hire an image perception and management consultant – is a school-burning, women-suppressing, narcotic-profiteering lunatic, armed to the teeth and hell bent on overthrowing the free world.

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How about: isolated, impoverished tribesman ignored by the rest of the world until he became useful – first as a pawn in the Cold War, then as a pinball in the civil war that followed Soviet occupation, particularly after it became apparent that a small-timer called Mohammad Omar could “fix things” so that Central Asian oil and gas could flow; and finally as a scapegoat when the Taliban got too big for its boots.

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“I don’t understand the thinking behind this hypocrisy and killing of our people, but if that’s what it takes to keep the Americans out of Pakistan, it’s a sacrifice we Pashtun are prepared to make,” he said, making him my candidate for Pashtun poster boy of the year.