Tag: Insurgents

Taleban? Let’s Talk!

International Studies Group

Subject:  Afghanistan/Pakistan/Peace/Taliban

Since Gen. Pratreus has taken over the command of troops in Afghanistan there has been a wealth of speculation that he will go about the war the way he did in Iraq….that is to bring some of the warring factions over to the ‘good guys’ side and that will hasten the end of the conflict…..I am amused!  And underwhelmed by such extreme lack of knowledge on the part of the media…..yes…we all want this horrendous wart to end and our guys and gals return to their loved ones……the success of the so-called “surge” was not so much what the US did but rather what the AQ  guys were doing to the tribes in western Iraq….the Sheiks got pissed and decided to throw in with the US and its allies….for the time being…..

The strategy of the surge is a noble one but I think a little too optimistic for Afghanistan….

Karzai has admitted that he is in talks with the Taleban….but what does that really mean?

According to the Daily Times, the meeting, held in Kabul two weeks ago to contain the network, was attended by Maulvi Abdul Kabir, a wanted former Taliban governor, his deputy Sedre Azam and Anwarul Haq Mujahed, an imprisoned terrorist, who were flown to the Afghan capital from Peshawar.

Kabir was the governor of Nangarhar province during the Taliban rule and the current head of the Taliban’s Peshawar council, while Mujahed is a terrorist leader credited with helping Osama Bin Laden escape the US assault on Tora Bora in 2001.Washington and Kabul are reportedly seeking to capitalize on Kabir’s position in Afghanistan’s powerful and dominant Zadran tribe.

An Afghan official said that the US and Afghanistan governments want to try and sap some of Haqqani’s tribal-based strength by bringing Kabir on board and dividing tribal loyalties.

Of course, denials began to fly out of Washington and that the US would not jeopardize the troops with such an unthoughtful occurrence…..me thinks that they protests too much…..and that leads me to think that there is something to these reports….but more…it is a dash, a mad dash to make Patreus look like the miracle worker that he was portrayed in Iraq and to give some padding to the Obama strategy…..

A Change Of Plan In Afghanistan

Increasingly frustrated by the “downward spiral” that the U.S. intelligence community sees in Afghanistan, the Pentagon appears to be moving in support of engaging leaders of the resurgent Taliban who are prepared to disassociate themselves from al Qaeda.

While the seeds for that strategy are being planted now, the next U.S. president – be it the current front-runner, Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, or his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain – will likely be advised by Pentagon chief Robert Gates and the new chief of the U.S. Central Command (Centcom), Gen. David Petraeus, to support such an effort as the most effective way to stabilize Afghanistan where the “global war on terror” first began seven years ago.

According to the Post, Petraeus has ordered the Team to focused on two major themes – “government-led reconciliation of Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the leveraging of diplomatic and economic initiatives with nearby countries that are influential in the war.” Those are precisely the strategies Rashid and Rubin highlighted in their article as critical to achieving their “Grand Bargain.”

According to a New York Times article earlier this month, the draft of a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) – a consensus document of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies – found that the security situation in Afghanistan was in a “downward spiral.” It cited rampant corruption in the government of President Hamid Karzai; the exploding drug trade that now accounts for half of the country’s economy; and increasingly sophisticated attacks by the Taliban that has so far taken the lives of more U.S. and NATO troops in 2008 than in any previous year as the main causes.