Afghanistan and Russia

This from Craig Murray:

'The truth is that the NATO occupation of Afghanistan has turned into a near exact reply of the Soviet occupation. I was thinking of my good Uzbek friend in Tashkent, who had been the number two in the KGB in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation.

The misnamed "Afghan National Army is over 70% Tajik and Uzbek in composition. These were the allies of the Soviets and continued under Nazbullah to fight the Taliban. The Soviet army itself used soldiers from the Uzbek and Tajik Soviet Socialist Republics extensively in Afghanistan. NATO is now using the same regime elites for its logistics, and the same tribes/ families who supported the Soviets in Afghanistan as allies.

In the wider diplomacy, all of this relates also the NATO's exit strategy. In effect, they are accepting that undemocratic Soviet styled regimes as in Uzbekistan - and I would argue Russia - are the best way to deal with the fact that the populations of the Caucasus and Central Asia are Muslim. They are hoping for a hardline secular regime backed by its "Northern neighbours".'