Delirium

[fpb]

President Karzai appointed a former President of Afghanistan to head peace negotiations with the Taliban. The Taliban sent a pretend negotiator - one of two; the other must have known what was going ot happen - who blew himself up along with the ex-President

Comments

[ihuitl]

Insurgents can be made peace with in individuals and smaller groups (although that's the case for anything in Afghanistan).

But the only way to get the majority of the Taliban as a whole to negotiate sincerely is to leverage their Pakistani backers. The Haqqani Network can be tempted with power sharing in the east since that's their main goal, although even then the hand of Pakistan's ISI is pulling strings.

You're also dealing with Pashtuns, whose culture indeed involves negotiations...but in the context of fighting. You cannot separate the two so easily.

So apart from continued military pressure, it's all about involving and/or outmaneuvering certain Pakistani elements. Otherwise the Afghan government (national and provincial), and local communities (especially!) will have to continue to fight back. The good news is that we can continue to put pressure on Pakistan even after we have left Afghanistan in large numbers due to our continued presence in the region and diplomatic/economic reach.

[fpb]

No culture in the world would ever start a second round of negotiations after the first has ended in treacherous murder. Nobody would offer to negotiate in the first place; it would be too close to declaring that one is tired of living and quite happy about the prospect of having one's little pieces swept up by the janitor.

[ihuitl]

Yeah, I wonder what the "only a diplomatic settlement will work" people are thinking now (i.e. democracy arsenal, etc). I think we will be shifting away from such things in the immediate future.

[fpb]

Plus, this is not about Afghanistan. It is about the BBC and their utter incapacity to think. You could sense the iron grooves of cliche' andstereotype driving this man down the inevitable alley of further concessions to encourage murderers to "come back to the negotiating table" and of blaming the victim. Thus they are with Israel, thus they were with Northern Ireland, thus they will inevitably repeat themselves with any enemy and any terrorist. These people don't think; they don't learn, because they don't start from reality; they don't abandon obvious rubbish when it is proven to be obvious rubbish. They don't live in the real world. That is why I think they badly need a violent and lengthy wake-up call.

[affablestranger]

I believe I heard the same report yesternight on the BBC World Service. It was a rather lengthy segment, too.