Keep your eyes on the Central Asian regions while more unrest grows... and the terrorist draw to these areas where US bases and Halliburton treads.
http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/03/26/d50326130494.htm
'Troubled triangle' may deepen US presence
Sat. March 26, 2005
AFP, Washington
Dogged by drug, terrorism and nuclear threats, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran are fast becoming a "troubled triangle" that could deepen US presence in the region, experts told a conference Thursday.
The problem is compounded by their strategic interests in each other's backyard, including Iran's strong influence in Afghanistan as Tehran strives to become a nuclear power, leaning toward Russia, China and India to create a strategic counterweight to the United States, they said.
"Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran are a troubled triangle and the US strategy now is to involve the US government in the region in a way to reduce the troubled nature," said Larry Goodson from the US Army War College.
But while a long term American commitment can help Afghanistan wean itself from drug dependency and boost reconstruction of the war-wrecked nation, and restore democracy to military-led Pakistan, it might fuel greater anti-American sentiment in the region, he warned.
"The US faces, as it does in Iraq, a real conundrum in that we have to stay in order to achieve strategic interest of stabilising and transforming these troubled regions but our very presence there is going to continue to attract some of the more militant jihadists who want to challenge their conception of the US project for the world," Goodson said.
"Anti-American attitudes are at an all-time high in some areas. We really can't stay and yet we dare not go," he said.