Look who’s talking ... to the Taliban!

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Tuesday, February 2, 2010 - 11:25 AM Share

Ahmed Rashid has long been the best writer on the war in Afghanistan. Here is an interesting line from a new column he wrote for the BBC.

According to my last count and information, diplomats or intelligence agents from Britain, Norway and Germany as well as several humanitarian agencies such as the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have met with Taliban officials either in Pakistan or Afghanistan over the past 12 months.

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EXPLORE:SOUTH ASIA, AFGHANISTAN, TALIBAN

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SMCI60652

9:28 PM ET

February 2, 2010

The REAL question...

isn't who is talking to the Taliban. It's what they're proposing to the Taliban.

What exactly is Karzai proposing to the senior leadership? Bribes? Guaranteed seats in Parliament or key Ministries? Tickets to the Superbowl?

I had posited the following scenario a few months ago:

"Perhaps the best VIABLE option is to settle for Kabul, Northern and Western Afghanistan to be governed by the Karzai regime. Thus satisfying Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Russia and India. And allowing for an effective stalemate and defacto dominance by the Taliban in Southern Afghanistan based around Qandahar. Thus allowing Pakistan to keep its sanity (the key to Chinese satisfaction), and Saudi and the Khaleej Sheikdoms to maintain their 'check' on Iranian ambitions."

Not sure how plausable such a scenario is 5 months later, but it sure looks like Karzai has dove head-first on to the compromise wagon, and NATO members are leaping in in droves as well.

NORWEGIAN SHOOTER

10:46 PM ET

February 2, 2010

Man, I told you there were Norwegian angles to plumb.

These lines are much more interesting:

The Afghan government does not see the need for accountability because the Western donor community is blamed and always held accountable and culpable for all short-comings, be it too few troops or corruption. Despite the London conference rhetoric of "Afghan ownership" of the peace and development process, the last nine years has still not created real ownership for the Afghans. There is still no semblance of a working Afghan state with basic governance institutions such as a functioning bureaucracy, judiciary and police. Nato's job in this surge of commitment is to make sure that the Afghans do not just increase their dependency on the West, but actually take charge, become responsible and make themselves accountable for their actions. President Karzai should realise this is a tougher job than talking to the Taliban.

Tom, do you agree with the best writer on Afghanistan here?

TOM RICKS

11:24 PM ET

February 2, 2010

Sure thing NoSho

What's not to agree with?
Your pal,
Tom

TYRTAIOS

11:54 PM ET

February 2, 2010

A Question?

It is more than just Karzai and his kleptocracy in Kabul. If you talk with any candid individual that has been involved with training-up the ANA in private, they'll tell you not only don't they see the ANA being able to backfill competently anytime soon. They presently don't see any of the ANA's top leadership, that is to say the colonels and generals, acting like they're at war - though obviously the rank and file is. Certainly, the Taliban see this also?

Further, like the Muj before the Taliban, who had part timers and full timers. I am wondering who we are talking with - the part timers or the full timers?

There is one thing I know: the longer the insurgent prolongs the war, it is to his advantage and I'm trying to discern why the Taliban, at least the full timers, would want to talk with us? This is pertinent since it appears the Pakistani Taliban are now willing to cross-over the border as well. Might this be a tactic like the North Vietnamese pulled, by parlaying for time, only to withdraw time and again?

Incidentally, do they have snow snakes in Afghanistan? The ones that crawl into your sleeping bag while you're asleep, and pack snow up your hind quarter until you freeze to death – I hate that - just asking?

NORWEGIAN SHOOTER

5:51 AM ET

February 3, 2010

Thanks, buddy

Follow up (a lost art in current journalism): Can 100,000+ foreign soldiers help with the task of building a working Afghan state?

GROUNDPOUNDER

4:25 PM ET

February 4, 2010

BBC's "Deficit of Credibility"

British "journalism," especially the type practiced by the BBC is about as reliable as the pabulum being pedaled by the lame stream American media! As for myself, I regard the National Enquirer to be today's "paper of record!"