Yes, Pashtunistan Does Have U.S. Takers - and They're Pentagon

'The Best Defense' is the Foreign Policy Magazine's national security blog. The author, Thomas E. Ricks, is a much-decorated defense reporter and author. In this blog post dated November 3, 2010, he gives us a long quote 'from a friend who can't be identified, but who is in a position to understand this'. To quote from the quote:

"Pakistan is an artificial construct whose legitimacy as an independent nation-state is increasingly called into question -- not only by some in the international community, but by increasing numbers of their own population. The largest Muslim nation in the subcontinent is not Pakistan, but India. Muslims live well -- indeed, on average, better -- in India than in Pakistan. This is not lost on the Pakistanis. Prognostications for India over the coming fifty years are pretty rosy from an economic perspective. That can hardly be said for Pakistan -- whose Punjabi elites control but a mere sliver of land between India and the FATA region to the north and west -- largely peopled by the Pashtuns. Further to the west are the Baluchis -- no friend of the Punjabis either and eager to go their own way.

"Given all of this, what if the U.S. finally decided to take into account the strategic culture of the region and decided to go over the heads of both the Pakistani and Afghan governments and make the following offer. The Durand Line is no more. We support the existence of a free and independent Pashtunistan and Baluchistan. Moreover, we could invite India to assist in this with Muslim Indian troops. It worked in Bangladesh. Why not here"

What is the significance of this? Chiefly this:

1. PakNatSec has been picking up for a while signs of a 'Pashtunistan Plan' brewing somewhere. This post by Tom Ricks makes it clear beyond an iota of doubt that someone somewhere is contemplating the bogeyman of Pashtunistan to push Pakistan to the wall;
2. For reasons that may not be elaborated here and now, PakNatSec is inclined to think this friend of Tom Ricks, 'who can't be identified, but who is in a position to understand [Counter Terrorism & Counter Insurgency]', is somebody fairly high in the U.S. military hierarchy. The 'Pashtunistan Plan', therefore, is a brainchild not of the U.S. political leadership or the CIA but of Pentagon; and
3. When the earlier pointers are re-evaluated in light of this revelation, is looks very likely that the plan is already in motion - and that securing White House approval is the next item on the Pentagon agenda.

The Ricks' post is here: What Joe Biden doesn't get: Why CT alone isn't the answer in Afghanistan.