Sec. Gates: U.S. engaged in 'preliminary' peace talks with the Taliban

[cal04]

Source: CNN

The United States has been engaged in peace talks with the Taliban, Defense Secretary Robert Gates told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, 11 days before he is set to resign.

"There's been outreach on the part of a number of countries, including the United States," he said. "I would say that these contacts are very preliminary."

Gates affirmed that "a political outcome is the way most of these wars end" and described the communication as being handled by the State Department for "a few weeks, maybe."

(snip)
"My own view is that real reconciliation talks are not likely to be able to make any substantive headway until at least this winter," he said.

Read more: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/19/sec-gates-u-s-engaged-in-preliminary-peace-talks-with-the-taliban/?hpt=po_bn2

[Lucky Luciano]

1. Ya gotta take what the Taluban says with an ocean of salt. nt

[JackRiddler]

3. Why, did they violate 200 treaties with the sovereign nations of Turtle Island?

[PoliticAverse]

2. So are they negotiating about oil pipelines? n/t

[JackRiddler]

4. Did they make sure these were real Taliban this time, and not some con-man impostor?

[cosmicone]

5. Taliban is a fake organization

created from active duty Pakistani military by the ISI to control Afghanistan.

None of the Afghanis I know of are in Taliban or support it one iota. The limo driver who drives me to and from the airport recently married a 23 year old Pushtun woman from his home town and she can barely read or write because of Taliban's ban on girls' schools and women's education.

Google "Kunduz airlift" and see howw Musharraf managed to get the Pakistani troops out of Afghanistan right under GW's nose.

No Pakistani military + No ISI = No Taliban = Peaceful Afghanistan that we can leave.

Pakistani military IS the problem and not a solution.

[Harmony Blue]

6. Very well said

Many times I hear journalists make the distinction between Afghan Taliban and Pakistani Taliban, but in reality they are the same as they freely float between the border of the two countries.