Since 2002, I have been warning that the increasing turmoil in Afghanistan is due to factors other than religious fanaticism or abject poverty. Those factors have always been there - and in times when there was no substantial civil insurrection. Instead, the blame should be placed on Afghanistan’s baby-boom, which has created half a century of “youth bulges” in the country’s population. The study of history shows clearly that when 30% or more of a nation’s male inhabitants are in the 15-29 age bracket, the result is chaos, violence and upheaval.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflicts/democracy_terror/islamism_war_demographics_rage