MSN: ONE-WAY TICKET PAKISTAN TO AFGHANISTAN, $4 PLEASE

Interesting articles found on MSN: http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/02/23/67163.aspx
http://dailynightly.msnbc.com/2007/02/4_for_a_oneway_.html

Reply posed on Feb.27 2007
"One Way Ticket to Afghanistan" brought back vivid memories of my travels in 1985 to Peshawar and the border area as well as to some of the farmers who had been encouraged to stop growing poppies and grow other cash crops. As we travelled by 4 wheel drive vehicle across the open areas on the Afghanistan border I was struck first by the vastness of the place and how remote this area was. My meaning of remote is not only a geographical reference, rather refers to how little the rest of the world knows about this part of the earth and what goes on here.

Much has happened in the world and Pakistan since then, but one thing has stayed rather constant, that the border is not only porous but it has a fluidity that is hard to comprehend. As I read the account of the travellers in One Way Ticket to Afghanistan I was again struck with the huge problem that both governments face to control human population movements. Pushtun folk have lived on both sides of the "border" for years and have largely ignored it as they consider all of it, theirs. They move back and forth across the mountain passes freely. The implications of this for "security" are obvious. The international concern for Taliban action in the area is in direct proportion to this political and social fluidity. Not only do people move but they move their goods, their high value cash crops, their Katusha weapons, but their collective will to remain fiercly independent moves with them. The world needs to read more about this amazing border area where so many countries have struggled to exert controls. I lived in the area during last days of the British Raj and have read so many stories of conflict that occured there.