Steve Coll has reported for the NEW YORKER magazine that the U.S. government is engaged in exploratory talks with representatives of the taliban-
U.S-Taliban Talks- NEW YORKER Feb. 28, 2011 Steve Coll
The questions arising from such are obvious if also myriad; with whom, by what authority, to what purpose, and with the connivance of who else?
As the afghan government found, talking is one thing but you'd best be sure of whom you're talking with. Moreover, the taliban have been increasingly factionalized between the old-guard Quetta Shura, the Haqqani network and Hizb-i-Gulbuddin.
This doesn't even address the mid-level battlefield commanders who've increasingly carved out their own fiefdoms and answer only sporadically and intermittantly to any higher authority in Quetta or Miran Shah.
Then there are the other players within and without Afghanistan to include N.A. representatives, the ISI, Uzbekistan, Russia, Iran and China. Any accord can be turned topsy-turvy in the blink of an eye by any combination of factions.
Finally, to what purpose do we really seek? The taliban garner no political weight in Afghanistan that isn't mustered at the barrel of a gun. However disliked a foreign presence of NATO might be, the taliban have consistently polled below 10% in ABC/BBC/ARD polls through the years. Even should the taliban find a common voice around which to rally, their political influence is marginalized the moment they disarm. They know it and so too their benefactors, the ISI.
U.S-Taliban Talks- NEW YORKER Feb. 28, 2011 Steve Coll
The questions arising from such are obvious if also myriad; with whom, by what authority, to what purpose, and with the connivance of who else?
As the afghan government found, talking is one thing but you'd best be sure of whom you're talking with. Moreover, the taliban have been increasingly factionalized between the old-guard Quetta Shura, the Haqqani network and Hizb-i-Gulbuddin.
This doesn't even address the mid-level battlefield commanders who've increasingly carved out their own fiefdoms and answer only sporadically and intermittantly to any higher authority in Quetta or Miran Shah.
Then there are the other players within and without Afghanistan to include N.A. representatives, the ISI, Uzbekistan, Russia, Iran and China. Any accord can be turned topsy-turvy in the blink of an eye by any combination of factions.
Finally, to what purpose do we really seek? The taliban garner no political weight in Afghanistan that isn't mustered at the barrel of a gun. However disliked a foreign presence of NATO might be, the taliban have consistently polled below 10% in ABC/BBC/ARD polls through the years. Even should the taliban find a common voice around which to rally, their political influence is marginalized the moment they disarm. They know it and so too their benefactors, the ISI.
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