[R-G] Russia throws a wrench in NATO's works

[CeJ]

Much of this ATimes article doesn't make any sense. The only way the
US was able to invade and occupy Afghanistan with such a small
contingent was through the Northern Alliance being their proxies on
the ground. The NA largely existed because of support from Russia
(with some from Iran). The NA collaborated with the US because Russia
gave them the go-ahead.

And the US has only been able to maintain its hugely expensive
presence in Afghanistan because of the air base infrastructure it
already had supplemented by agreements with ex-Soviet Union states in
C. Asia.

Surely someone as as informed as Putin sees that you can't control or
pacify Afghanistan without the support of the largest ethnic group and
its dominant tribal groupings, the Pashtun, who territorially overlap
with Pakistan, but are distributed all over Afghanistan. A land
corridor isn't going to help the US occupation of Afghanistan. And I
will be shocked if it ever comes down to some sort of deal whereby
NATO leaves Afghanistan as a quid pro quo for the land corridor by
which to supply the American occupation in Afghanistan. About the only
thing a land corridor would do is lower the costs and relieve much of
the airlift burden placed on US and NATO forces now.



CJ