"We can't defeat the Taliban."

[Dingfod]

Senior British commander in Afghanistan, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith (almost typed Carlton Sheets there, being real estate is involved) says a victory in the war against the Taliban is neither achievable or supportable. He says the mission now is to train enough Afghan troops to contain the insurgency to a low level, one not a strategic threat to the Afghan government. He says the only way forward is a political solution that would include the Taliban. Carleton-Smith's statement came after a leaked "cable" from the French ambassador to Afghanistan which said Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British Ambassador, told him the American strategy (Surge™) is doomed to failure. Cowper-Coles told him, the French ambassador, they don't want to be part of a losing strategy.

I say we get the fuck out of there and nuke the place from orbit. That's the only way to be sure.

[1Samuel8]

Originally Posted by Dingfod

I say we get the fuck out of there and nuke the place from orbit. That's the only way to be sure.

Be sure of what??
How the hell are you going to secure a pipeline after that???

[Clutch Munny]

Yeah, the CBC.ca comments site for this story was all full of "Sure, of course, we can't do everything for these people, after all."

Whereas anyone who'd said the same thing, for the same reasons, as General Carleton-Smith in months past would have been hooted down as a quitter, terrorist-sympathizer, etc.

It is frustrating, to say the least, that something known for years on end to anyone who investigated and thought about the matter is now a headline, because a single uniform managed to acknowledge reality.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by 1Samuel8

Be sure of what??
How the hell are you going to secure a pipeline after that???

Radioactive newkyoolar mutants work cheap and don't demand benefits, that's how.

[Watser?]

Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country's bloody conflict -- and are severing their ties with al Qaeda, sources close to the historic discussions have told CNN.

The militia, which has been intensifying its attacks on the U.S.-led coalition that toppled it from power in 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden's terrorist network, has been involved four days of talks hosted by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, says the source.

The talks -- the first of their kind aimed at resolving the lengthy conflict in Afghanistan -- mark a significant move by the Saudi leadership to take a direct role in Afghanistan, hosting delegates who have until recently been their enemies.

Sources: Taliban split with al Qaeda, seek peace - CNN.com

[Sauron]

Originally Posted by Watser?

Sources: Taliban split with al Qaeda, seek peace - CNN.com

This needs three things to work:

1. a cutoff of Saudi funding to AQ;
2. a cutoff of Pakistan providing arms, training, safe haven, and bodies for AQ;
3. a change in the political arena where the US and Israel are not seen as invaders and enemies

Ergo:
It hasn't got a snowball's chance in hell of working.

[Watser?]

I think it has a pretty good chance of working. The Taliban want to sue for a separate peace that will give them a lot of control over Afghanistan. Al Qaeda is pretty much fucked up anyway, they have nothing to offer the Taliban. The Taliban don't give a shit about the Palestinians.

[Deadlokd]

The kicker is the "lot of control" they want. Don't forget that these are the screaming loonies that destroyed those statues, stone women who show their ankles and kill their female family members for "dishonouring" the family.

I wouldn't grant them the right to rule a toilet.

[Watser?]

Problem is they already have a lot of control.

And every air raid gives them more support.

[California Tanker]

Maybe they're just sick of living in caves, or at least in huts on the top of bloody freezing mountains and have given up on their desire to rule the whole country?

Don't forget that these are the screaming loonies that destroyed those statues

I've heard they're trying to rebuild the Bhuddas. I'm not sure I understand how. The pictures I saw seem to show that they were pretty profesionally disintegrated.

NTM

[chunksmediocrites]

The history of Afghanistan is littered with invaders breaking themselves on the people and the topography of the region. Afghanistan has spent the last thirty years in civil wars and cold wars played out across its people. The vast mountainous regions defied the efforts of the Soviets, who found strong parallels to America's Vietnam War in their nine-year occupation of Afghanistan.

The Taliban might listen to the Saudis, as they funded the construction of many of the madrasses all through the border regions of Pakistan where the refugee children of the Mujahideen went to learn from Wahhabist clerics (from Saudi Arabia) teaching this fundamentalist version of Sunni Islam, that primarily emphasizes Sharia Law. This was back when the U.S. and Saudi Arabia were funneling money through the Pakistani ISI to fund and train the Mujahideen along with groups of foreign fighters come to join the cause- coordinated by the millionaire son of a wealthy Saudi family in the construction business. Foreign fighters later known as al Qaeda and their militant millionaire leader, Osama bin Laden. Of course back then they were liberating Afghanistan from the Soviets with our blessing. It should be noted as well that Saudi Arabia did not love the rogue bin Laden and his dreams of a Caliphate.

Those refugee kids grew up learning, as students, or talibs, Wahhabist Sunni Islam , and eventually they found their own role, becoming what would be known as the Taliban. Why wouldn't they listen to the king of a monarchy that built their schools, taught them fundamentalist Islam, and presides over a nation where women aren't allowed to drive?