A runner nears the half-way point of the 2008 Army 10-miler on Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, as a C-130 takes off Oct. 5, 2008. The 189th Combat Service Support Battalion sponsored the run so that coalition troops, civilian employees and contractors in Kandahar could join the thousands of other runners around the world participating in the event. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Matt WrzesinskiWhy It's So Hard To Negotiate with The Taliban
-- Globe And Mail
-- Globe And Mail
Militants deny talks have taken place to keep fighters motivated and reject the government's conditions for coming to the table
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- In the spring of 2007, a Taliban commander brought a small delegation of insurgents to Kabul for a secret meeting with Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, the former Afghan president who leads a reconciliation program for insurgents who want to stop fighting.
But the talks quickly turned sour. Mr. Mojaddedi gave the Taliban delegation $10 to cover the expenses of the dangerous journey and waved them away, telling them to come back later.
"It was an insult," said the Taliban leader, his skin darkened by years on sun-baked battlefields. "They're not serious."
Nothing in the recent months of war has changed that impression. The government and its backers have failed to persuade insurgents that they're taking the idea of negotiations seriously, and the Taliban themselves haven't shown any real enthusiasm for talks.
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My Comment: Afghanistan is a failed state. The people who are fighting against the central government will fight among themselves if foreign forces are to leave .... a Somalia scenario being the probable outcome. The best way is to break the factions off from the insurgency and to co-opt the different factions. This tactic was used to great success in Iraq, no reason to think the same in Afghanistan. But will the Afghan Government agree to this .... I do not know the answer.