Taliban deny they’re ready for peace talks
Like I said earlier today, they’re not convinced they’re beaten and this Administration is in no position to convince them that they are (Military Times link to Associated Press article);
The Taliban denied Wednesday that the movement is planning direct talks with the Afghan government to end the 10-year-old war, while a leaked NATO report suggested the insurgents are confident they will regain power after international troops leave.
Yeah, they sound like they’re ready to surrender don’t they? Well, to convince them that they’re negotiating form a position of strength, we’re going to release some Gitmo prisoners;
U.S. intelligence officials acknowledged Tuesday that to build trust with the Taliban, the United States may release several Afghan Taliban prisoners from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper told Congress that no decision had been made whether to trade the five Taliban prisoners, now held at Guantanamo Bay, as part of the nascent peace talks with the Taliban.
Yeah, they’re the ones who bomb shoppers at the local market, throw acid in the faces of schoolgirls, but we need to build trust with them. Why don’t we give them some drones, too, along with some training to use them accurately. They’ll trust us after that, and during training, they can assassinate some of the trainers. They already have plenty of practice at that.
In the latest such incident, an Afghan soldier shot and killed a NATO service member in southern Afghanistan late Tuesday, although the circumstances were unclear. The U.S.-led military coalition said it was an attack, while an Afghan commander called it an accident.
Yep, that’s who we need to build trust with. Meanwhile, Leon Panetta is telling them that we’re ending combat operations in Afghanistan next year.
Category: Terror War
Meh, no worries. This is all dependent on Obama winning re-election. If he doesn’t I’m sure his republican successor will triple the number of troops there and ensure we stay for at least another eight years.
“In the latest such incident, an Afghan soldier shot and killed a NATO service member in southern Afghanistan.” Anyone think maybe we should stop training these guys? I mean if we don’t plan on leaving then we won’t need them to have training. The only reason to give them any training would be if we plan on leaving.
I doubt highly that we’ll stay for another 10 years. Even in a training and advisory role. Hamid Karzai has a lot to do with that. Dude is corrupt. The main problem is that these people are almost literally living 100 years in the past, more in some areas. You can’t fix problems like that in one generation.
If, we were to stay and provide security for say another 10 years and insist on educational reforms, to include but not limited to exchange programs, and programs in Agricultural, and industrial management, then yes you would see a bottom up change. These people are used to being Sefs. that’s what they’ve been, and always believe they would be. When the Taliban *does* eventually return maybe we might see a ray of hope, in that the people will remember that the US at least *tried* to be benevolent. The Taliban strait up doesn’t give a shit.
I don’t think it matters who is President next year, that turd is already rolling down the hill and ain’t no one gonna touch it.
Oh…..I feel the love
Be done with it already. Obama, Panetta, and his pussy ass administration have already thrown in the towel and everyone knows it. All the major terrorist organizations have already set up shop in the horn of Africa amongst many other places. Afghanistan is just a proving ground and a life fire training area for all the assorted jihadist movements anyways. What a waste of time and life. We’ve been used and fucked by politics once again. Just because we are stopping fundamentalist islam assholes that want to destroy America in Afghanistan doesn’t mean they aren’t doing it elsewhere in a myriad of different countries that we have no presence in.
According to the article found at this link, http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/01/31/administration_briefs_senate_leaders_on_taliban_transfer, Obama’s releasing Taliban back into the wild.
Remember folks: Obama can surrender our troops in A-stan whenever he wants. Given the Iranian and Taliban race to secure the corridor to the Pakistani ports, Obama will be able to claim the withdrawal was OBE.
Doc,
I was telling the same thing for a while now to people I know and they said I was full of shit. I think the 10 years timeline is really generous,but,doable if they get rid of Karzai. You are 100% right that they are like 100 years behind in some areas and more in others. “Peace with honor” is back in vogue, so hang on we will start pulling out in numbers by Nov 2012.
And the Taliban did what, exactly to earn our trust?
When they blow up a kids’ school or street market, have we somehow misinterpreted their centuries-old gesture of mutual respect and civility, a sort of “Hi welcome to Afghanistan, Pard. What’ll you have”?
I love how they can’t even stick with their own arbitary timeline. Unlike Iraq there isn’t even a plausible explanation about, they have no leg to stand on.
The five shit birds are notorius. We plan on releasing them as a show of our good faith, not because the Taliban plan to trade anything in return. You would think they would at least hold out for the guy from the 4/25th whom they still have.
1#”Meh, no worries. This is all dependent on Obama winning re-election. If he doesn’t I’m sure his republican successor will triple the number of troops there and ensure we stay for at least another eight years.” …we can hope but I’d doubt it. Not with a President Romney anyway. He’d justify it by doing the exact opposite of whatever he was stating was the goal. A mirage everyone would play along with but know one would actually believe.
Is it just me of has this new form of “we came, we blew it up, we rebuilt it for the enemy” not getting the military or the country anywhere fast?
Remember Tripoli? When the military said, “we came, we blew it up, we left the rubble as a reminder to anyone else not to fuck with us” I think they had the right idea.
It sickens me to thing that so many people have pissed away their lives on this country and we’re just going to give up. We go, we go to win, and talk of nothing else till that’s done. You can define values of winning, but you have to win
If we have to double down again, so be it. Find the enemy. Kill them. Humiliate them. Make it clear that you do not screw with us, or any like us. Post their heads on spikes if you have to. Take the damn kiddy gloves off and WIN GOD DAMMIT!!