Taliban representatives and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai have begun secret, high-level talks over a negotiated end to the war, according to Afghan and Arab sources.Reports of the talks come amid what Afghan, Arab and European sources said they see as a distinct change of heart by the Obama administration toward full backing of negotiations. Although President Obama and his national security team have long said the war would not be won by military means alone, sources said the administration only recently appeared open to talks rather than resisting them.
"We did not have consensus, and there were some who thought they could do it militarily," said a second European official. The Europeans said the American shift began in the summer, as combat intensified with smaller-than-expected NATO gains despite the arrival of the full complement of new U.S. troops, amid rising U.S. public opposition to the war.
The United States' European partners in Afghanistan, with different histories and under far stronger domestic pressure to withdraw their troops, have always been more amenable to a negotiated settlement. "What it really boils down to is the Americans both supporting and in some cases maybe even participating in talking with the enemy," the first European official said. "If you strip everything away, that's the deal here. For so long, politically, it's been a deal breaker in the United States, and with some people it still is."
That could be because the war
Whatever domestic political difficulties the administration may fear would result from a negotiated deal with the Taliban, this official said, would be resolved by ending the war earlier rather than later. "A successful policy solves the political problem," he said.
Peace and stability of some sort might come to Afghanistan, but this 'Peace with Honor' solution (instead of achieving a clear victory over Afghanistan) will also establish a dangerous precedent: An attack on the US is not a deadly mistake at all.
Say goodbye to deterrence, say goodbye to any concept of an American 'security umbrella.'
Taking into account that Iran, an openly hostile islamofascistic regime, will soon be nuclear, I'm looking forward to interesting times in the near future.
Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, told reporters last week that high-level Taliban leaders had "sought to reach out" to the top level of the Karzai government. "This is how you end these kinds of insurgencies," he said.
How long till Mullah Omar, foreign minister of an Afghan unity government (subsidized by western taxpayers) will visit the UN in NYC?
How long till Mullah Omar will enjoy the vista from the Ground Zero Victory Mosque?
This plan might indeed end the insurgency but it will lose the war for the US and NATO. At this point, an immediate precipitous withdrawal, without any negotiation would be preferable because we could at least avoid an explicit humiliation and submission.
/rant