I guess we can take it for granted girls in that area would be forced to remain illiterate and there will be no songs or dances which is endemic to humanity coming out of that region just because some religious pricks are averse to modernity.

maybe asj can move there too...since he cyant stand the US

Surprise eh! never thought in your wildest dreams that the Taliban would make a comeback, you were always of the opinion that the USA will wipe them all out, you were wrong then just as how you are wrong now.

No one knows what the future holds

Who knows maybe one day asj will visit that country, as he has already made

his runs and time now to retire

We all wish that the Taliban will change and with strings attached to Aids, maybe they can.

 Why would I be surprised or not? Society is organic. The US is not Kublai Khan who would wipe out the society to rebuild it. They do not hold and keep positions. They let the people there determine their future and apparently, Afghanistan is one of those places that is doomed to failed state status. The taliban cannot sustain it. The US spend over a billion a month there and built their first cross country 4 lane highway, dug massive amounts of wells, build schools, electrified the towns, installed cell and computer networks etc and if they cannot organize to sustain it then I say f.&@k them. Let them eat cake.

On the plus side, The US will have a much larger target should shit start up with dem ignars.

Stoning and shooting women and oppressing girls will be the law of that land.  ASJ, would you prefer your female relatives living under the "holy" Taliban or the "sinful" West?

Creating areas of Taliban rule will help to contain them and those not wanting to live under their medieval thumbs could migrate to the other parts.  This is the first step in the division of Afganistan.

Despite of what you guys say or think or predicts, fail not to realise that after The United States leaves Afghanistan being miserably defeated by the Taliban, Afghanistan will once again be ruled by the Taliban.

It is left to be seen if they will adheared to its once strict policy of governing by Shariah, or rather being  tolerant in their rules, the latter is widely expected from the Taliban by the world community at large, time will tell.

Recent Report suggested that

The Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are set to retake control of Afghanistan after Nato-led forces withdraw from the country, according to reports citing a classifed assessment by US forces.

The Times described the report as secret and "highly classified", saying it was put together last month by the US military at Bagram air base in Afghanistan for top Nato officers. The BBC also carried a report on the leaked document.

"Many Afghans are already bracing themselves for an eventual return of the Taliban," the report was quoted as saying. "Once Isaf (Nato-led forces) is no longer a factor, Taliban consider their victory inevitable."

The document stated that Pakistan's security agency was helping the Taliban in directing attacks against foreign forces – a charge long denied by Islamabad.

The findings were based on interrogations of more than 4,000 Taliban and al-Qaida detainees, the Times said, adding the document was scarce on identifying individual insurgents.

A US state department spokesman and Britain's Foreign Office both declined comment on the report. Nato and Pakistani officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

Despite the presence of more than 100,000 foreign troops, the UN has said violence in Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were ousted by US-backed forces in 2001.

The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) says levels of violence are falling.

Citing the same report, the BBC reported on its website that Pakistan and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency knew the locations of senior Taliban leaders and supported the expulsion of "foreign invaders from Afghanistan".

"Senior Taliban leaders meet regularly with ISI personnel, who advise on strategy and relay any pertinent concerns of the government of Pakistan."

The Times said the document suggested the Taliban were gaining in popularity, partly because the severe Islamist movement was becoming more tolerant.

The report was quoted as stating: "It remains to be seen whether a revitalised, more progressive Taliban will endure if they continue to gain power and popularity. Regardless, at least within the Taliban the refurbished image is already having a positive effect on morale."

Baseman Quote "Creating areas of Taliban rule will help to contain them and those not wanting to live under their medieval thumbs could migrate to the other parts.  This is the first step in the division of Afganistan"unquote

Will not happen, for the simple reason that the Taliban will eventually govern the entire country. Will the Untied States wants to engage in another War again in Afghanistan........I doubt wether.

The great Bush should have don what he wanted to do in the first place, nuke Kabul and Kandahar.

Afganistan will break into the North and South.

foreign policy 'expert' @ work here . . . shhhhhhh

You mean like the United States did to Japan re Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

There is nothing great about Bush in my opinion, many Americans will tell you that he is supposed to be the worst President ever or he is rated amongs't the worst

Nah, he got a bad rap and many now realize that.  Obama is turning out to be a "do-little" president, nuff talk but do little.  One redeeming thing, he giving those wahab terrorists a good wack.  Bush was just too soft on them.

It's difficult to convince old timers like asj that the world has moved on from the 13th century...if he feels that that Afganistan is better off under the oppressive rule of the Taliban, then he must believe that women are second class citizens who should not show their face in public, people must not watch TV, there must be no entertainment, girls must stay uneducated etc etc

It's difficult and disheartening to understand how someone who enjoys the freedoms of living in a western society want his fellow man to live under subjugation....but to each his own...bitterness is a bad thing

Ray,  try to think that Afghanistan is for Afghanis, not for the United States and their cronies, who are bent on suppressing the people and are at times can be just as well as bad as the Taliban.

Pro-war imperialists, including everyone from Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama to the truly laughable fascist types on FOX News and people like yourself, have argued that the war in Afghanistan is necessary to bring the girls of Afghanistan a chance to be free. This is not about Clinton valiantly struggling to put women’s rights on the agenda and sometimes succeeding against all odds. This is not about Obama’s administration “fixing” mistakes made by the bumbling Bush/Cheney regime. This is about a war for empire, pure and simple. The rhetoric about the oppression of women provides a convenient excuse for the continued occupation but does not justify the war- not from the initiation nor the present day bombs still raining on wedding parties, women and children and babies in their sleep.

You are so much brainwashed, that your one way mode of thinking are clouding your faculty and does not make any sense in your analogy.

The world cannot wait for the crimes of the United States to be stopped, give the children, women and babies a chance to live in their own country, let the citizens of Afghanistan chart their own course let them be the masters of their destiny. Do not decimate them by murdering them in their sleep.

 First, were this not the best place to be your senile behind would not be here slurping up the benefits of a free society. Afghanistan has nothing the US wants. As one Russian general puts it, it is the place that god dumped the left over rocks when he created the world.

The taliban are the worse example of what humans can be when they believe they are in possession of the definitive understanding of reality and are determined to make the rest of the world confirm to it. They are anti modern, medieval and basically what every other people on the planet do not want to be. That you feel an affinity for them is not surprising. That is why the US watches people like you. Be sure they are watching you. How do you think the know what the Al Queda sympathizer was saying on the recent presentation in congress in the debates for fire arms control last week.

Like I said...you seem to be in favor of subjugation...so it's a waste of time to try and make you see the light

Do not get me wrong, or either project an impression that I do not represent, as I would love to see that Afghanis live in a free society. I would love to see girls

going back to School, start to work and have a say in their community. Would like

to see women takes up more position in Government.

Can the next Government put on a human face? It is left to be seen.

Actually, from your writings, I can't help but feel that you are in favor of subjugation...seems once it's the Taliban doing the subjugation, all is well in your eyes

I know that drones kill indiscriminately, but the US do not deliberately murder or subjugate Afgans like the Taliban do