subject: We Cant Win The War In Afghanistan Without Diplomacy [print this page] This is the determination of the man in charge (General David Patraeus). He is credited with bringing the situation in Iraq under control and he certainly is the man who will be able to do the same job in Afghanistan. In his assessment (and mine) we need to be able to get the Taliban to come to the table and talk about their terms for ending the war.
There are many reasons that the United States needs to go to the negotiating table in order to bring an end to the war. The main reason is that there are too many radical Islamic men and women who are all too willing to give their lives in the fight. The US and NATO are fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan but dont let that term throw you off. The Taliban in Afghanistan comes from all of the countries in the region, and as far away as Syria and the United States. There will never be a shortage of Taliban fighters willing to die for their cause. Lets also keep in mind that they are fanatic about what they are doing. To them it is their religious purpose and duty to fight and die to kill Americans. There is absolutely nothing that can be done to parallel the fanaticism that our troops face when they come up against the Taliban. Sheer numbers dont matter because they will always match the number of troops that we send to the area.
The US and NATO are not getting much support from neighboring countries in the area. The Arab sentiment sees us as the aggressor and their given religious enemy so even if other countries want to help they are hindered by pressure from their neighbors. Anything being done to assist NATO has to be done secretly.
The biggest issue that we control least is the widespread corruption found among officials of the Afghan Army and Police Force. Corruption has been so rampant for so long that it is almost impossible to get it under control. The Obama Administration has pressured President Karzai to get the corruption under control and he has responded well but the key is that the corruption is just a part of doing business in Afghanistan. In that sense it is just about impossible to stop. The local populace has no confidence in an army which extorts money and terrorizes them when it should be defending them from the enemy.
Our goals were recently revised in that region as they should have been and our objectives are clearer and more reachable than they have been. We can in reality withdraw from the region right now without feeling like we didnt meet them. The mindset of wiping out terrorists is not a realistic mindset and anyone who thinks that this will ever happen is delusional.
I believe that the real objective of the troop surge was to inflict enough damage on the Taliban and al-Qaeda to convince them that they cant drive us out of the country and to soften up their mentality towards coming to the table to talk about peace. We have certainly inflicted quite a number of casualties on them and President Karzai has been conducting talks with some of their leaders in order to come to some kind of peace terms. The brilliance of his plan is that he has offered to repatriate them back into Afghan society after the war. There have already been Taliban members who have indicated that they are interested in a peaceful solution to the war.
General Petraeus has timed his announcement of peace negotiations brilliantly. He has allowed the mitigating factors that we have introduced to the situation to have their effect and has given the idea some time to be planted and to germinate in the minds of the enemy combatants.
The most brilliant aspect of the plan is that it allows both sides to end the stalemated situation without being the loser. This is crucial to public sentiment for the Taliban in their own countries, and to the US and NATO in all of the respective countries that they represent. Military Ring Express
