Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to re: You want to speculate about Afghanistan?

Agreed, that the Middle East wouldn't be stable anyway.
Mary Anne — (archived)

The US wouldn't be blamed quite as universally for the problem, though. We're in the "you broke it, you bought it" phase of the war now.

We would probably not be on the outs with so many groups, including many allies, that supported us when we invaded Afghanistan. You may think that's insignificant, but I don't.

The Iranian nuclear weapons program might also not be so intransigent, not because of Saddam (who would probably be looking for a way to get his own bomb to "balance" things, as with the Pakistani/Indian feud), but because the US would have more weight to throw around, economically, militarily, and diplomatically. Iran has been emboldened by our problems and strengthened by the support of their Shi'a brethren in Iraq who are no longer under Saddam's boot.

I honestly don't know what can be done about Pakistan. The Pakistanis will have to figure that out themselves. It would certainly be good to root out the terrorist cells along the Afghani-Pakistani border. Since that area is, as you point out and as the British and the Russians (among others) have learned, impossible to control, the next best thing is to keep them penned up there until they wind up eating their young. Figuratively, of course.

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