To bring peace to the Afghans, talk to the Taleban

David Lindsay

We already do. We just call them "tribal elders" when we do it. But they are exactly the same people. Why are we in Afghanistan, anyway? What, exactly, would constitute victory or defeat there? And why, exactly?

mark

at last - an article that both spells out the problem and also proposes solutions - unlike Mr Selbourne's effort in this edition.

Stan Coveney

Afghanistan is a dead end, a quagmire.
Millennia of history from Alexander to the Soviet Union invasions tell us that.
Better to leave Afghans to sort out their own affairs.
If terror camps spring up then military incursions on various scales from time to time would keep them ‘wrong footed’.
At present terror groups based in Pakistan operate with relative impunity in Pakistan, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Let the terror groups deal with the local people and explain why their occupation and oppression is better that any of the other alternatives.

Steve

An interesting article....but...
Consider this, if the majority of the Afghan people want a Taliban style government who are we to claim the right to not allow it. Its not our country. It is up to the Afghan people to decide their own destiny. Western style democracy (whatever that may mean) has no place in a tribal society, it doesn't fit and doesn't work in that sort of situation, especially when it is seen as being imposed by force of "infidel arms".
If all Western troops pulled out the result may not be pretty, at least not to our "bleeding heart" trendy socialists but it would give the Afghanis the opportunity to forge their own society along whatever lines and with whatever social restrictions they want.
It is pure arrogance by us to assume that we are right and they are wrong.
The same applies to Iraq. We have no place there, we were not invited, we are not wanted and should therefore leave with all despatch.

Steve S.

Well-done Adam. When are you coming to visit us again in Helmand?

Paul

Interesting stuff and from someone who has been here. I would not agree with the proposed solutions but we are engaged in a much more nuanced military and civil campaign right now that places the population at the centre of our activities not the Taliban. The mantra here is that the population is the prize. Ask Steve S. he can confirm this and it is slowly yielding results.Is there an e-mail address to engage in a less public discussion?

Peter Haldane

Of course the Taliban must be talked to but they cannot be allowed to impose their will to the point that they allow activities within the area of their control that threatens other states. However, it is the Kharzai government that must do the talking and if they are unwilling to do so they must be coerced. It is too important a matter for them to stone-wall on this.

Mark

"Britain has lost nearly 100 dead."

Really? NHS kills that many every week. You could talk to the taliban about setting up an NHS for them. They'd never know what hit them.

Ron P

What I think this writer forgets is the fact that Pakistan is a nuke nation and the tribal region between Pakistan and Afghanistan is rife with terrorists that are trying to get a nuke and light it off in a European or American city all in the name of allah. As the war winds down in Iraq (I'll call that a win for the record, thanks) I say we "surge" in Afghanistan, stomp the lawless tribal region out of existence, set up real security and begin some real rebuilding of the infrastructure. A quick expansion of the road/water systems and farm lands to allow farmers to make the same amount of money on fruits and nuts as they do on poppies will get the country on the right path. Within 3-5 years we could see some real change, and that would include women's rights (which should not put it on the back burner.) The bottom line is that the taliban are corrupting islam much like al qaeda, and while no one should be told what religion to follow, we are in a worldwide fight against these nuts and the last thing we need to be doing is talking to them. Let the sunnis beat their head on the ground all day long, but the minute they want to take to violence against others it's no longer a religion, it's terrorism. You can sit around asking "why" all day long, but in the end it doesn't matter "why" they the practice a radical form of islam, it's "when" will they bring it to you and I, again, if we pull out or do nothing about it.

dubya

no difference between taliban and al qaeda -- they're both after religion-based totalitarianism. religion-based governments must not be tolerated ANYWHERE they all demand the citizens enslave themselves to irrational lovers of death.

Kristopher

( sarcasm )

You know ... all that unpleasantness in the 1940's could have been avoided had we been willing to talk to the Nazis.

BobG

Yes, Mr Chamberlain, uh Holloway, you are perfectly correct.

The Taliban have proven that they are reasonable people who would love peace if given a chance. Oh wait, they had a chance.

I think what Holloway is saying is it is just too hard. We will make our stand behind the cliffs of Dover. Ooops! Too late.

sol vason

Why send money if we simply pull out and leave the country to the Taliban.

I say take our friends home with us and every spring bomb the heroin crop. Why provide alternative employment? Destroy the crop and they will find some other way to live.

Great article. I'm convinced. No possibility of sucess in Afganistan but we can destroy the heroin crop.

John W

Michael Yon sent me here. He thinks your point is an important one and needs to be discussed. When Michael Yon puts forth an opinion on the war, we should take notice.

Miriam Mendelson

Quite heartened to see the majority of posters here are not blind to the essential issue: Religious brutality and coercion can be called by any name you want, but they need to be dealt with - and not by accommodation. You can accommodate a people, a tribe, even a religion - but not a pratice. Allowing brutal and repressive practices to continue (whether by al-Qaeda or the Taleban) means allowing the cancer that is overtaking large parts of the Islamic world to continue to grow. The everyday Muslims are the first victims, the West is the second. Oh - women's rights? Lets allow women (and moderates, dissidents and others for that matter) to be stoned in soccer stadiums and killed by relatives... we'll get to that when the right time comes. Oh - but by then it will be too late. For them. For us.

Kafir

You say we have lost considerable goodwill across the Muslim world. Tell me what goodwill have we lost? The goodwill that killed all those Israeli athletes in 1972? Or perhaps it was the goodwill that got 50+ US embassy workers held captive for 444 days in 1979. Oh, maybe it was the goodwill that got 200+ US Marines killed in 1983 or a truckbomb in the WTC in 1993, or the goodwill that blew a gaping hole in the USS Cole in 2000. I'm thinking we didn't have a lot of goodwill to begin with.

I too came here via Michael Yon. I respect him. What I got most from your article is that we're not living up to our promises in Afghanistan. Do that first. Then you can talk to the Taliban if you must, but you'll be able to do it from a position of strength.

Ellen J

This makes sence to me. We seem to think here in the west that we have the right to decide how people should live. That really makes me mad because we talk about freedom but we don't really advocate it. The truth is simple. You don't win this kind of war. It just isn't possible. I understand the fear people have of extremists, but they need to look at history. Because it shows us that persicution makes these extreme groups stronger. This is the first time that I have had confermation that what I have been feeling about this is true and could possibly work.