General Stanley McChrystal apparently convinced the politicians in Pakistan that the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban were conspiring to overthrow the government in Islamabad, and that is why the Pakis suddenly remembered where the leader of the Pakistani Taliban was and arrested him. No one could have been more surprised at the arrest than Mullah Baradar, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, who had regularly attended meetings with Pakistani Intelligence officials, and who thought he was perfectly safe. Double dealing like this goes on all the time. Sometimes the Afghan and Pakistani politicians betray us, sometimes they betray the Taliban, sometimes they betray each other. But that’s life in the Stans. My question is, if we are in Afghanistan because it borders Iran and we want air bases in easy flying distance, then why not say so? If there is no strategic or geopolitical reason for being there that benefits the United States, then we should get out of those backwater and useless Stans and stick to our own Stans.

How did we get here, how and why

This Stan, this place of clans

This place where Muslim killers rule

Just like in other Stans

We’ve had our own Stans in the past

Stan Laurel comes to mind

Stan Musial was a lefty but

One of the hitting kind

The purest hitter I did see

And that includes DiMag

Not like the hitters in these Stans

Who come back from the hajj

All full of hate and fear and spite

Determined just to kill

And if they die those virgins wait

No sweat, it’s Allah’s will

I’ll take our Stans and they keep theirs

Stan Laurel makes me laugh

As General Stan McChrystal writes

The Taliban epitaph