Comments on: Engaging the Afghan Taliban: a short history

By: rex minor

rex minor — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:06:51 +0000

Any analyst with a wrong premise is very likely to end up with a wrong prognosis and hence a wrong solution. The american think tanks have to forget their university lessons and the given texts if they realy wish to understand the so called Talibans. The Talibans are Pashtoons as a start they should therefore drop the label of ‘students’ for the group which is now the resistance force and let us try to obtain the key features from the history before dealing with them;
1. The Pashtoons do not negotiate with foreigners but simply specify demands. Under no circumstances they would tolerate the foreigners’ presence in their land, unless they give them assylum.

2. The are made up of several tribes, each being independent of the other but having a common culture and tradition.
Ofcourse the current Afghanistan also has non Pashtoon citizens who call themselves as Afghans. The US invaded the country with their aid and this act of aggression is not forgotten in the land.

The Rubins of the US should come out of their illusary world by making demands.In my opinion the interest of the US are not very different from the interests of the Pashtoos. Both Nations cherish their freedom and want peace. This objecive is not difficult to realise. The rest is all humbug.

By: Mauryan

Mauryan — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:34:18 +0000

Taliban is a puppet moving with the strings manipulated by Pak military. By dealing with the puppet, the US is simply fooling itself. Pakistan has been cheating the US and it is blatantly obvious to everyone other than the Americans and their blind allies. Taliban cannot survive with Pak military’s support. The US would have been wiser to spend its energy in taking out the Pak military criminal infrastructure. Taliban is a lifeless dummy without Pak military. It is a big waste of time negotiating with a puppet. The US should be dealing with the Pak military, forcing them to fight the Taliban head on. Even there the Pak military has dodged everything. It has danced around South Waziristan and did nothing at the end. All the TTP leaders have been knocked out by the US. Haqqani, Hekmatyar networks are still alive. All these are puppets controlled by the ISI and Pak military. Until this sinister establishment is taken on directly by the US, there will be no resolution in Afghanistan or the entire region. Pakistan is waiting out the US.

By: Problem solved

Problem solved — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:16:36 +0000

And no more GALBraithian Forest

By: Problem solved

Problem solved — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 13:13:31 +0000

BEST it would be if U.S. is having modified its own behaviour ESpecially economics patient dirivative tax

By: rajeevk

rajeevk — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:10:17 +0000

Correction to my earlier post:

“It is because they have FAILED to defeat the monster and now they are ill defining the monster.”

By: rajeevk

rajeevk — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:08:04 +0000

@The question to ask now is can the Taliban and al-Qaeda really be split apart after supporting each other on the battlefield for the last eight years ?”

Sanjeev: All I can give you is a smile over this? See the picture above that you posted. This is by Taliban.

Taliban will pretend to split with A-Q to gain power after which it will again be chocolate and water with A-Q at the earliest possible time. Why this will not be the case is not understandable.

Everyone is trying to paint a nice face on Taliban–call them Pushtoons and hence need to be part of the system. This has arisen not that what they think is true. It is because they have to defeat the monster and now they are ill defining the monster. It may not be black, but it is very very grey—not white at all–the face of Pushtoon Taliban. This is nothing to do with “Pushtoon” package. It is their ultrafundementalistic ideology that does not even align with the culture in the poor nation Afghanistan.

Some erroneously or in denial or on need, call Taliban as Pushtoons. This is just the same way Indians will call LeT as Pakistanis. True in both cases. If Taliban represent Pushtoon face, then LeT represent Pakistani face? Sorry to say one can dig one’s head and expose ignorance.

There will be a deal in the end but I hope at least those who shake hand would be graceful enough to tell the truth to the world and not pack of lies on which future problems will be based. Sweetening agent and lies are different.

Hands will be shaken and consolatory victory will be achieved by labeling Taliban as no more the hosts of A-Q that attacked the USA.

I heard regime change but they are kicking it up a notch by changing the mentality of the regime!!!

By: Sanjay Negi

Sanjay Negi — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:23:58 +0000

India needs to accept that Pakistan did the right thing in helping US to throw the communists out of Afghanistan. Communism and socialism are more evil than all the fanatics of the world put together. We also need to accept that the US did the wrong thing in abandoning the Mujahideen fighters once the communists had been defeated.

Any normally moral and grateful country would have granted a life long pension to these honest brave fighters who had gone through a period of lot of personal sacrifices during the 10 year war.

Since the Afghan youth had learnt no other skills than fighting gorilla wars, and they had to do something for a living, they got transformed into the Taliban….

Pakistan of course cheated all the way. First it cheated the US by stealing a lot of supplies meant for the Afghan communist war to instigate insurgency in India, then it cheated by helping the Taliban to take over Afghanistan and now is again cheating by helping the US to fight the Taliban….I doubt if even Pakistan knows whose side it is on any particular day….

By: Sanjeev Miglani

Sanjeev Miglani — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:01:47 +0000

To negotiate or not. A couple of interesting pieces, one in the Wall Street Journal that says the current pressure for an Afghan government-led “reconciliation” process can only lead to a temporary resolution of the conflict. The long-term strategic objective of denying space to violent Islamist groups will remain unfulfilled. Here’s the link : http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424 052748703909804575124040217173382.html?m od=googlenews_wsj

Ahmad Rashid, on the other hand, argues in the Washington Post that the longer the United States and its NATO delay talks with the Taliban, the greater will be the risk to the broader region. Here’s the link to his article in the Washington Post :http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ntent/article/2010/03/16/AR2010031603302 _pf.html

By: babyjee

babyjee — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:13:36 +0000

Self-serving historical revisionism, how sweet!

By: G-W

G-W — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:43:18 +0000

Sanjeev,

It is a grave mistake to be legitimizing the Taliban. It was not that long ago that they were flogging women, beating men for not wearing beards and lopping off hands and heads.

This Taliban creed embraces backwardness and engaging with them will bring nothing good. Sure it may bring stability through fear, tyranny and oppression, but is that what the civilized world wants?..to concede and allow oppression and tyrrany to bring stability to the masses? Even Red China has stability on its masses through tyrrany, control and oppression, but the spirit of the people will always be broken.

A hybrid governance of democracy and tribal manners should be setup in Afghanistan, with Pakistan kept out of Afghanistan, nothing good will come of Pakistan meddling there, only mold, fungus and terrorism and the next 911 upon the U.S.