Islamic Nationalism Is Behind Pakistan Crisis

Pres Bush wants Pakistan to eliminate cross-border contact between Pakistan and Afghanistan, to deny Pakistan as a safe haven for the Afghan Taliban. Here, Fuller stresses that the cross-border ties are inextricable: clan, family, history, culture, language, religion. This ethnic organism will not be sundered by the arbitrary and unpopular borders between the two countries. Ethnic Pashtuns can, do and will casually ignore this artificial divide. Indeed, the Taliban as a political and ideological movement is growing more powerful within Pakistan itself.