Helping to Understand the Indian Embassy Attack

The Afghan monarchy would foment Pushtun nationalism on the Pakistani side of the border, to show its power to Pakistan. 

Encouraging Islamism (by 1994, the Taleban) in Afghani Pushtun areas was Pakistan's response.

Pakistan's main rival, since British India was divided on religious lines into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India, has always been India.

The Taleban, in addition to wanting to run Afghanistan as an Islamic Pushun state, have always been overly friendly with Pakistan, which is why Pakistan is being accused and Pakistan is denying anything to do with the attack.

Obama said nothing useful, and, in fact, sounded somewhat ignorant.  I'll still vote for him over John McCain (2008 version) every day of the week.

By the way, I feel like reminding people that America created the sectarian divisions in Iraq by handing out power along sectarian lines in the first place.  If we are going to hand out eight cabinet posts, three to reds, three to greens, and two to blues, then it makes no sense, whether you are red, green or blue, to form a mixed coalition.  You wouldn't be liable to get any seat at all, even if your white (or black) coalition worked.  Since this was the practice at the very moment when Iraqi political parties began to form, they would, inevitably, form along red, green and blue lines.  The division in Iraqi politics before Saddam was the Nationalists/Ba'athist/Pan-Arabists, the Islamists, and the Marxists.