A quote from the Financial Times, London, UK, 27 January 2010, says that Afghanistan’s finance minister has raised the prospect of involving the Taliban across all levels of government, at both a district and central government level, as part of a broader plan for their reintegration and brokering peace.
A U.S. Administration official is reported to have said people agree that part of the solution for Afghanistan is going to include an accommodation with the Taliban, even above low- and middle-level fighters.
There are allegedly some high level Taliban who want to talk peace.
However, I’m reminded of the old North Vietnamese and Viet Cong policy of “talk-talk – fight-fight.”
This means that you keeping the idiot peaceniks at all cost talking peace while you keep fighting.
Al Qaeda and Taliban are not as stupid as many in the U.S. think they are. They have a long range goal of an Islamic caliphate and nothing will cause them to deviate them from that goal.
The quickest way to lose an Afghan democratic government (such as it is) is to accept any suggestion that the Taliban quit fighting and join the Afghan government.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
All good points, IF it is essential that Afganistan become a democraticaly styled government. If that is the goal, then we need to consider whether there is any chance that the US and its allies will remain in and occupy the country for the two generations it will take to change the thinking of the rank and file citizen. The last country that could pull off that feat was Great Britain, when the sun never sat on its empire.
I think history teaches that it is impossible to kill enough insurgents to bring about a change in the attitude of the population. Time, education and economics are the tools needed and if we aren’t able or willing to use them then we need to cut the best deal we can and modify our presence in the area.
… and Islam constitutes greater ideologues than the NVA were. Even at the risk of death, as evidenced by the mutterngs coming out of the senior leadership in Iran, their focus will remain on a worldwide Islamic caliphate. Moderating the goals of Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan to a point where it rubs off on Iran are the only way we will see peace in that region and defuse the threat to Israel and the Western world. Having the Taliban join the Afghan government is the equivalent of letting the fox in the henhouse.