Pakistani Link to Suicide Attacks in Afghanistan

Afghan officials claim there are ties to Pakistan in every suicide bombing in Afghanistan. It is part of their contention with Pakistan that the anti-government forces in Afghanistan are really rooted in Pakistan.

The truth of course is that the source of anti-Afghan government forces are rooted in Pashtunistan, that ethnic region that is partly in Afghanistan and partly in Pakistan and is home of the Pashtuns. That many Pashtuns from Afghanistan are refugees in Pakistan after decades of war clearly makes turning them into radical fighters or even suicide bombers that much easier. Refugees from war have that rootless, idealized sense of loss of homeland that I'm sure makes them manipulable by people like the Taliban movement, which is currently stronger and better able to organize in Pakistan than in Afghanistan.