ABSTRACT
The trend of discussion on Afghanistan — international and regional — has been marked by pessimism, especially after US President Barack Obama drew a time-table of withdrawal. This had the effect of boosting hopes in Taliban ranks and, naturally, in Pakistan, which has mentored the extremists. Within Afghanistan, however, despondency is not what characterises the mood, although uncertainty does. But doomsday predictions and chaos, civil war and disruption, are not what the Afghans themselves see as being their automatic fate upon the departure of the international battalions. They allow for serious dislocations, of course, especially on the economic side, and this cannot but have broader consequences.
