Is Afghanistan heading for partition?

Is Afghanistan heading for partition, as President Karzai tries to mend fences with the Taliban and the Americans want to wind up their longest ever foreign military campaign? It would appear so. If it happens it will have far reaching strategic implications for South Asian security, particularly for India and Pakistan. Another round of civil war between the Pashto dominant and Pakistan supported Taliban and the other minority tribals is also likely putting the clock back on Afghanistan's perilous experiment with Western democratic practice.

Actually, it was former US ambassador to India Robert D Blackwill set the ball rolling with his article 'A de facto partition for Afghanistan' after which a series of analytical articles on the topic have appeared. A selection of such articles is given below:

Ethnic divide threatens Afghanistan by Laura King
In Los Angeles Times, July 17, 20019
URL http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-ethnic-tension-20100717,0,7025054,print.story

Needed: A new political order in the Hindu-Kush region: Time has come to accept the de facto partition of Afghanistan by Brahma Chellaney
In The Sunday Guardian, July 18, 2010
URL http://chellaney.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!4913C7C8A2EA4A30!1227.entry

End of the game by K Subhrahmanyam
In Indian Express, July 13, 2010
URL http://www.indianexpress.com/news/end-of-the-game/645627/0

A de facto partition for Afghanistan by Robert D. Blackwill
July7,2010
URL http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39432.html