05-12-2009, 02:50 PM
The Game is concerned with Turkestan (not Turkmenistan), specifically Eastern Turkestan. Most of the Central Asian nations are locked into China and the ex-USSR and have been subject to multiple pacifications, domestications and cleansings so that almost nothing of the former civilization(s) remain. The strategy is to stir the suppressed nations to engender instability in the former USSR and China, so that Turkestan represents a kind of policy daggar aimed at the cleavage between the two remaining competitors to US hegemony/superpowerhood.
According to professor of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University Chris Beckwith, Afghanistan represents the last unconquered area of Central Asia. (The Silk Road on Australia's ABC Radio National program Counterpoint, November 30, 2009, direct audio link.
Greater Pashtunistan represents the Afghan slice of the Kashmir mincemeat pie.
According to professor of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University Chris Beckwith, Afghanistan represents the last unconquered area of Central Asia. (The Silk Road on Australia's ABC Radio National program Counterpoint, November 30, 2009, direct audio link.
Greater Pashtunistan represents the Afghan slice of the Kashmir mincemeat pie.