Push to negotiate with the Taliban will begin Monday

[babylonsister]

Ummm, isn't this what Obama suggested doing, and McLame pooh-poohed it?


Push to negotiate with the Taliban will begin Monday
By Saeed Shah | McClatchy Newspapers


ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A major push to open negotiations with the Taliban on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border will begin Monday at a summit of leading political figures from the two countries, as the U.S.-backed governments in Kabul and Islamabad face a mounting threat from Islamic extremists.

Pakistani Taliban, based in the country's tribal border area with Afghanistan, have joined the battle in Afghanistan and also taken on Islamabad. Nevertheless, the assembly of 50 people, called a jirga, which will meet for two days in Islamabad with the backing of both governments, is likely to question the continued presence of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Rustam Shah Mohmand, a participant and a former Pakistani ambassador to Afghanistan, said it's impossible to deal with the Taliban while Western forces remain in Afghanistan. He also said that the Kabul and Islamabad governments must drop their insistence that they'll negotiate only with Taliban who've disarmed.

"You talk to people who have taken up arms and are battling you; you just can't be an escapist and say only those willing to lay down their arms," said Mohmand. "In the Afghanistan and tribal areas context, it is ridiculous. People don't lay down their arms in this culture."

The Bush administration is divided about the wisdom of trying to negotiate with the Taliban and also about the idea that more moderate Taliban can be drawn away from their extremist colleagues.

While some officials, particularly in the White House, think negotiations are a trap, Defense Secretary Bob Gates and some military officers have encouraged talks, and some military commanders in Afghanistan, led by the British, have said that they cannot defeat the Taliban on the battlefield.

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