Point 1: "As for the Taliban, they comprise part of the forces fighting the A(f)ghan occupation all right"

Well the last time I heard from somebody who has actually been out there the Taleban are the ONLY people fighting. Were they to cease and desist there would be no fighting at all in Afghanistan

Point 2: "but what that war really is is a war between the Pashtuns and the foreign occupying forces."

No, not really. If however you have hard evidence that substantiates this claim of yours I would be interested in looking at it. About 90% of the Pashtun population of Afghanistan are currently fighting nobody, they do however provide the bulk of civilian casualties of the fighting two out of every three being killed not by the "big bad evil western forces of occupation" but by their fellow Pashtuns - the Taleban.

Point 3: "Most Pashtuns are not Taliban."

Very true, roughly only 1 in 10 support the Taleban, the others do the best they can to eke out a peaceful existence. Of the Pashtun population of Afghanistan twice as many support and voted for Hamid Karzai and no small risk of death or dismemberment than support the Taleban.

Point 4: "They are not fighting to restore the Taliban"

They (the majority of the Pashtun population of Afghanistan) are not fighting PERIOD.

Point 5: "they (The Pashtun population of Afghanistan) are fighting to get foreign occupiers out of Afghanistan and restore their own control of the country."

No about 25,000 people, many of them having no claim to Afghan citizenship, out of a population of 32 million are attempting to regain by violent action, what they originally took by violent action about 12 years ago. "Their control of the country" was an unmitigated disaster for the country and its population, hundreds of thousands were brutally murdered and millions fled as refugees into Pakistan and Iran (The UNHCR at the time stated that of all the worlds refugees two out of every three were Afghans).

Point 6: "They (The Pashtun population of Afghanistan) comprise the great majority of the Afghan population."

No they do not, they comprise the largest minority group 42% of the population are Pashtun and all the other minority groups make up 58% of the population. Again if you have any hard evidence that refutes that statement I would like to see it.

Folkiedave - "Who decided to whom they should be allowed to lend before? Because for sure they got caught? I don't remember seeing any government saying "You should lend to people who can't afford to pay you back"."

The sub-prime mortgage crisis originated in the USA and was caused by the Clinton adminstration forcing Mortgage Brokers Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae to dole out mortgages to borrowers who were what would normally be considered as "bad risk". They did this on the erroneous assumption that the Federal bank would guarantee the loans. The Clinton administration did nothing to dispell this understanding. As property increased in value people borrowed against it, when repayments were not met and debts were called in the whole house of cards collapsed.