Adminstration OK's behind the scenes talks with Taliban

[Nancy Waterman]

This is a policy shift!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/19/obama-afghanistan-strategy-taliban-negotiate

The Obama administration is revising its Afghanistan strategy to embrace the idea of negotiating with senior members of the Taliban through third parties – a policy to which it had previously been lukewarm.

Negotiation with the Taliban has long been advocated by Hamid Karzai, the Afghanistan president, and the British and Pakistan governments, but resisted by the US.

The Guardian has learned that while the official position of the US government is still resistant to the idea of talks with Taliban leaders, behind the scenes a shift is under way, and Washington is now encouraging Karzai to take a lead in such negotiations.

[gateley]

1. They must be ready to talk - one of the guys brought a casserole to the meeting! nt

[TwilightGardener]

3. LOL--hope it has crushed Ritz crackers or potato chips on top!

[karynnj]

10. LOL - actually they have some really fantastic stews if my county's Afghan restaurant

is authentic. Scroll down to the entrees.

http://www.pamirrestaurant.com/PRDMenu.html

[gateley]

11. Wow -- I'd give them anything they wanted if they fed me like that! nt

[karynnj]

13. So, with food as good as this, I hope the dinner itself was finished

when Biden famously walked out on Karzai.

It doe put into perspective the recommendation that one woman made to a SFRC that the US facilitate farmer switching from poppies to growing pomegranates, almond and apricot trees that have thrived there in the past. That whole stretch from Turkey to Pakistan has really interesting food. (I've never had an Iraqi dish, but Persian, Pakistani, Indian and this Afghani are all really good. As i all the middle eastern/Mediterranean. )

[eleny]

6. lol!

[TwilightGardener]

2. Well...laying the groundwork for leaving, that's how I see this.

Coming to grips with reality--we can't fight them forever. Just need to get them to stop sponsoring or harboring terrorists.

[DevonRex]

7. +1. nt

[DCBob]

9. Yep. There have been other signs of this lately.

The administration and the military knows they cannot keep fighting this war forever. The problem is figuring out to exit gracefully without human and/or political catastrophe.

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

4. But why would the USA want to negotiate when we could fight

to the death of the very last man, woman and child so we could use up our military resources only to replace them with more taxpayer dollars going to corporations?

[eleny]

8. Maybe the military is sick of fighting with cheap Chinese armaments

:shrug:

[vaberella]

16. Because obviously this President doesn't want to stay in indefinitely. n/t

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[IndianaGreen]

12. There is no military solution. IOW, a stalemate.

This war was lost back in late 2007.

[Jennicut]

14. Yes, there is no other way then to negotiate and then get the hell out of there.

I don't see how we can "win", especially with the COIN strategy.

[vaberella]

17. There was no war since we entered. However we had problems getting out.

This just suggests that Obama is done with nonsense and wants out as fast as possible. And unfortunately in the statement the poster you responded too stated---I agree with you...this is a stalemate and unfortunately my heart goes out to these women and maybe we can help as many of them as possible to get out of that country---ie Asylum (which is so rigid it's no joke) but as for changing the destructiveness of this nation is impossible. I think our best bed is to sequester the nation and move troops into neighboring countries so we don't have problems of these guys screwing up other nations like Pakistan.

[mkultra]

19. how many innocents should die to stop the acid?

[Tailormyst]

15. They should balance this out by offering every female Afghani asylum

And a safe armed escort to the plane for both her and her children. The Taliban are slave owners and those slaves are women. They are treated worse then livestock are treated.

[vaberella]

18. Hi-Five. I just suggested that in my post above yours.

That's the best we can do. Offer it to the elderly, women and children asylum and protection as we did for Jews post WWII. And end this nonsense. Not to mention that would help mitigate blowback.