U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Danieto Bacchus radios back to base as he and his squad descend a mountain ridge during a dismounted patrol mission near Forward Operating Base Baylough, Zabul province, Afghanistan, March 19, 2009. Bacchus and fellow soldiers are assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Adam ManciniFrom Captain's Quarters:
Regular readers of The Captain’s Journal know what we believe regarding negotiations with the Taliban. Some indigenous poor may be stripped away from the hard core Taliban, but the hard core Taliban cannot be reconciled. We needn’t rehearse this issue again. But there is a recent analysis on negotiating with the Taliban that has both an important and related observation.
The premise underlying negotiations is that the insurgency can be short-circuited by splitting commanders who are fighting because of grievances like the civilian deaths in U.S. military operations away from true believers loyal to Taliban founder and Osama bin Laden ally Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Read more ....
My Comment: The following is the money quote from this article .... it is from a former Taliban foreign ministry official:
The Taliban are no longer only concerned with imposing Islamic rule on Afghanistan, but have adopted al-Qaida’s aim of staging Islamist revolutions throughout Asia and the Middle East.
My guess is that these Taliban Commanders and leaders have been staying around Osama Bin Laden for too long.