You can’t always trust what you read in the newspapers. And you can’t always trust what you read on the Internet and on blogs. However, this blog does attempt to cut through the fog to the extent possible and provide clarity.
The US has engaged the Taliban in a species of peace talks that are sponsored by the Emirate of Qatar. Pursuant to that, The Afghan Taliban have received quasi-diplomatic recognition again, for the first time in a dozen years. Today they opened a political office in Doha, Qatar.
(Taliban in Doha) “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan simultaneously follows military and political actions and aims which are limited to Afghanistan. The Islamic Emirate never wants to pose harms to other countries from its soil, nor will it allow anyone to cause a threat to the security of countries from the soil of Afghanistan.”
News outlets reported that representatives of the Taliban will meet Afghan and US officials in Doha, Qatar, to discuss an agenda for what US officials called “peace and reconciliation” before further talks take place with Afghan government representatives soon after.
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| Afghanistan is returning to its roots. |
The Taliban office in Qatar has the approval of Mullah Omar, as does the initiation of talks. They made a longer statement than I reported above and in that statement, betray no sense of compromise in the long term agenda. They appear to have dropped their longstanding condition that all foreign troops must withdraw from Afghanistan first before talks could begin. The talks are simply a delaying tactic as US forces leave Afghanistan.
News reports described the lengthy arrangements involving Pakistan, the US, Egypt and others that nurtured the prospective talks with the Taliban, not just Qatar. If talks actually start, the process might provide a window of reduced attacks for an orderly withdrawal of Western forces, instead of a withdrawal under fire. That is probably as substantive as the talks will get and even that is wishful thinking. Omar and the other anti-government leaders can’t control their fighters sufficiently to keep any promises of restraint.
I was generally opposed to the US occupation of Afghanistan beyond the initial phase post 9/11 and the expansion of the war under Obama to become a war of national pacification. Anyone who reads history and understands the nature of the place could not help but come to the same conclusion as I have. Mr. Obama wanted to have a war, he picked Afghanistan and now he’s withdrawing. For those of you who recall the scene in 2009, it was “Iraq bad, Afghanistan good.” Both cost a lot of blood and treasure. And in 2013, what do we have to show for them? Iraq is now the home of a bloody civil war. Over 200 people were murdered in Baghdad last week. It reminds me of Chicago…because the mainstream media doesn’t cover either one. Afghanistan will return to a repressive Islamist state that harbors like-minded people.
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| Hamid Karzai, Crook |
The Karzai Government is a puppet government and exists only so long as he has US bayonets to back him up. The moment that the US is gone, he’ll be aboard his Gulfstream, loaded with cash and gold, headed for retirement in Switzerland.
Such are the wars that we fight these days. It’s not difficult to predict how things will turn out.
What a mess…. the only ones who win are the ones who feed on Chaos.
As for negotiating with so-called Peaceful Taliban, Taquiyya guides muslims to promise peace. Peace which is achieved when the enemies of islam (all non-muslims) are dead. I don't see that as peace.
It reminds me of Iraq.
Applying twisted Islamic logic, the world is at peace when their enemies (perceived and real) are annihilated and resting in the grave — RIP America.
Both sides hate us. Why bother?
exactly
So why are we still there, tell me again why our government is even talking with them, All I see is this: The Department of Defense announced today the death of four soldiers who were supporting Operation Enduring Freedom.
They died June 18, in Bagram, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with indirect fire.
Killed were:
Sgt. Justin R. Johnson, 25, of Hobe Sound, Fla, assigned to the 10th Transportation Battalion, 7th Sustainment Brigade, Fort Eustis, Va.,
Spc. Ember M. Alt, 21, of Beech Island, S.C.,
Spc. Robert W. Ellis, 21, of Kennewick, Wash., and
Spc. William R. Moody, 30, of Burleson, Texas, all assigned to 68th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 43rd Sustainment Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colo.
We have no reason to be there. Every death of a US citizen there (there are a lot of those in addition to military people) is a complete waste in my opinion.
Remember: When obama was running for the top job, and we were almost out of Afghanistan but still in Iraq, he shouted – over and over and over – the the REAR war was in Afghanistan. When he was elected he started shutting down Iraq and started moving people into Afghanistan. When Americans move into an area the bad guys follow them and start crap. It's always that way, and had always BEEN that way. Ask General Custer.
The war that developed in Afghanistan is clearly Obama's War (as opposed to the initial special ops war there under Bush). He doesn't want to own it – but then again he doesn't want to own anything that can be construed to be other than a triumph for himself.
If you break it, you buy it…but what if it was broke before we got there? I'm still confused as to why that place qualifies as "a country." If Pluto is not a planet, Afghanistan is not a country.
It's interesting that you put it that way. A liberal former colleague of mine recently told me of his brainstorm: A Marshall Plan for Afghanistan. He'd never been there but felt that it would work.
It wouldn't. They still have difficulty finding their own rears to wipe. It's a bronze age culture with modern foreign weapons.
Thanks for this very interesting post.
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