"Afghanistan as the test case..."
"Test case of what?"
"You know a country devastated by war where the international community started with almost a clean slate."
"I believe East Timor was more like that - a clean slate once they won independence status. But Afghanistan can never have a clean slate. They have a long history of civil war, not civil disobedience - the Gandhian concept - but war. I mean they are a war-like people who have never hesitated to fight their enemies and if they can't find any outside their borders they start fighting between themselves. And yes, before you say anything, I agree the poor have always suffered but isn't that true for most war-like cultures."
"They have to break the power of the war lords before they can achieve development."
"That's not going to be easy. I mean given their present government, propped up entirely by US forces, I mean Karzai can't even find enough Afghans to guarantee him protection in a country which, supposedly, elected him to power."
"So, OK, the Afghans don't present a clean slate."
"Right. And then the West is trying to distinguish between the Taleban and the non-Taleban. I don't know how you can tell them apart except for some known leaders who, like our politicians, are quick to change sides when it suits them, then reemerge as leaders of the opposition if they feel strongly enough at any given time about occupation."
"I see."
"Now the latest is that the Coalition forces are worried that attacks by the Taleban are rising."
"May be, the Americans should read history for a change. The British drew the Durand Line and requested the Afghans to stay on their side of the line while the poor Soviets had to leave the country. It's just not conquerable."
"Well, you can't convince Bush of that!"
"I would go one step further and say Iraq is not conquerable for similar reasons. There are too many ethnic and sectarian groups for harmony."
"So who is conquerable for the US?"
"Vietnam wasn't in the end either."
"So who is conquerable?"
"The poodles of the world are conquerable - maybe, America should go back to the pre-Bush policies."