And no, I wasn't referring to "Taliban."
"Karzai appeals to Taliban to lay down guns in Afghanistan; Allies pledge funds for peace effort" by Rahim Faiez, Associated Press | February 1, 2010
A casket containing the body of a Taliban fighter was carried into an ambulance to be transported to his village in Lashkar Gah, in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. (Abdul Khaleq/ Associated Press)
You know, it's just a thought, but if these guys were not the PEOPLE, would they be loading up the hearse for the trip home?
Just a thought, readers. Pay it no never mind as you read the printed propaganda.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan’s president appealed to Taliban fighters yesterday to lay down their weapons and accept Afghan laws as the government and its international allies push a program to entice militants away from the insurgency.
President Hamid Karzai spoke three days after he and Western supporters agreed at a conference in London to create a more comprehensive program to bring Taliban insurgents over to the government’s side in order to reduce violence that has raged in recent years.
Incentives have existed for years for the Taliban to stop fighting, but these have generally been ineffective, attracting only the lowest-level fighters with no guarantees they would not return to the insurgency or that promised aid would come through.
Yeah, and that's the SAME FAILED STRATEGY the U.S. is INSISTING ON NOW!!!!
And despite the incentives, the insurgency has expanded steadily in the past six years. In 2004, NATO estimated that fewer than 400 Taliban were left in Afghanistan.
By last year that figure had grown to nearly 25,000, with the latest estimates in early 2010 putting the number of insurgents at close to 30,000....
Related: Boston Globe Censorship: Troops Outnumber Taliban
How the hell are we losing, America?
It's TIME to CUT OUR LOSSES and LEAVE!!!!
However, the Taliban has always set the withdrawal of international troops as a precondition for any negotiations.
I'm amenable to that. Let's go!
Karzai called that unrealistic, saying the NATO coalition should be expected to stay until it achieves its goal of removing Al Qaeda and other terrorist threats.
Yeah, I know; I was only hoping, readers.
Let the blood flow, 'eh, AmeriKa?
:-(
Afghanistan’s international supporters agreed in London to provide funding for a renewed effort to woo Taliban away from Al Qaeda and the insurgency, given the commitment of the Afghan government to institute a more comprehensive and thorough program, including jobs and education....
When are you going to get some of that with your own tax loot, 'murkn!?
Karzai is scheduled to travel this week to Saudi Arabia, one of the few countries that recognized the Taliban regime before it was ousted in 2001 and whose leaders have acted as intermediaries before. Karzai declined to say if he planned to discuss the new reconciliation plan with the Saudis.
Ever notice how the Zionist newspaper plays down Saudi involvement in terrorism?
Must be some sort of partnership the Zionist MSM is covering up there.
“The role of Saudi Arabia is extremely important for Afghanistan,’’ Karzai said. “This role we’re seeking is not only for talks with the Taliban. It’s a broader role that we’re seeking, which is for peace-building in Afghanistan, for improved relations with our nations, and for reconstruction and assistance.’’
Saudi Arabia pledged an additional $150 million in aid to Afghanistan at the London conference.
Karzai also stressed the need to curb civilian casualties by progovernment forces and reiterated his demand for NATO to end night raids, which have increasingly drawn public anger.
Related: NATO's New Night Rules in Afghanistan
US officials have said the top NATO commander, US General Stanley McChrystal, plans to issue a new directive on night raids soon.
Last year McChrystal curbed the use of air power to assuage rising public anger over civilian casualties.
Commanders still have the option of calling in airstrikes if they come under fire and civilians are not at risk.
An Afghan baby was killed and a woman wounded during one such NATO-Afghan operation targeting militants in central Afghanistan on Saturday, the international force said.
OUTRAGEOUS!!!! Aaaaaaaaahhhh!
All this peace talk while a BABY was MURDERED -- and it's a BACK of the ARTICLE issue?
Maybe I should be 'thankful" the paper mentioned it at all, huh?
Of course, we are MOWING PEOPLE DOWN over there left and right and the MSM is either LYING ABOUT IT or COVERING IT UP!
The casualties occurred when the joint force came under fire from several locations as it approached a compound in Uruzgan Province, prompting a gunbattle, according to a statement.
Said who, the murderous U.S. military or NATO?
Yeah, so much for peace:
"4 NATO troops die in Afghan fighting" by Associated Press | February 2, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan - Four NATO service members - including one American - were killed in action yesterday, the deadliest day for the international force in more than two weeks.
Combat deaths are running at higher levels than in recent years even through the traditional winter fighting lull and despite talk of peace overtures to the Taliban and their allies.
The American service member, who was not identified, died in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan, the NATO command announced.
Two British soldiers also died in bomb blasts during a foot patrol in the south, the main theater of the war....
This is REAL, not a movie, scum bags!
I know that's the term the military guy's like to use, but pfffft!!
Spain’s Defense Ministry said one Spanish soldier was killed and six were wounded when their vehicle struck a bomb while escorting a UN relief convoy near Qali-i-Naw, 340 miles west of Kabul. That made yesterday the deadliest day for the allied force since Jan. 13....
Hey, why don't all you Europeans get into the act and sacrifice yourselves for our lies?
Oh, already doing that.
No follow-up on baby.
--more--"
And it's off to Arabia for Karzai, 'eh?
"Saudis reiterate demand that Taliban expel bin Laden" by Abdullah Al-Shihri, Associated Press | February 3, 2010
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia said during a visit by President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan yesterday that it will not get involved in peacemaking unless the Taliban stop providing shelter and sever all ties with Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda....
[There is no other country in the world more involved in the creation of both Taliban and “Al Qaida” than Saudi Arabia. No matter what the government says in its own defense, none of the mujahidin programs in Afghanistan and Pakistan could have happened without direct Saudi support. The reach of the International Islamic Network that they have helped nurture extends deep into former Soviet territory as well as into China. Wherever the word “Islamist” is used to describe militants it is reporting on an outlet of the Saudi/American/Pakistani/Israeli/British network of terror.] -- Karzai Wants Peace With Taliban, So He Goes To Saudi King
You are LOVING the LIES, aren't you, America?
Weren't 15 of those 19 hijackers (as well as the DEAD GUY himself) Saudi?
Saudi Arabia has a unique relationship with the Taliban since it was one of the few countries to recognize the regime before it was ousted in 2001 and has acted as an intermediary before.
Don't you like the MSM scrub job?
The Saudi conditions for participating in the talks with the Taliban, especially expelling former Saudi citizen bin Laden, are not new, but Riyadh is making them clear amid a new international push to work with the Afghan militants.
Saudi officials say they need a Taliban commitment to renounce contacts with extremists before engaging the group.
“So long as the Taliban doesn’t stop providing shelter for terrorists and bin Laden and end their contacts with them, I don’t think the negotiations will be positive or even able to achieve anything,’’ Prince Saud al-Faisal, Saudi foreign minister, said in London last week....
Readers (blog editor types in exasperation)!
Bin Laden is a member of a wealthy Saudi family but fell out with the government in the early 1990s over the presence of US troops there.
He has repeatedly condemned the ruling family and was stripped of his citizenship in 1994.
Blah, blah, blah.
Saudi Arabia hosted members of the Afghan government and Taliban over a meal during the holy month of Ramadan in 2008 at the request of Karzai. But the talks didn’t get very far.
Saudi analyst Anwar Eshki said informal Saudi contacts with Taliban members have been made in recent months to gauge the group’s mood....
Wouldn't they already know?
--more--"
Maybe we could ask our guy.
Oh, yeah, one more thing:
"The U.S. government was well aware of the Taliban's reactionary program, yet it chose to back their rise to power in the mid-1990s. The creation of the Taliban was "actively encouraged by the ISI and the CIA," according to Selig Harrison, an expert on U.S. relations with Asia. "The United States encouraged Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to support the Taliban, certainly right up to their advance on Kabul," adds respected journalist Ahmed Rashid. When the Taliban took power, State Department spokesperson Glyn Davies said that he saw "nothing objectionable" in the Taliban's plans to impose strict Islamic law, and Senator Hank Brown, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia, welcomed the new regime: "The good part of what has happened is that one of the factions at last seems capable of developing a new government in Afghanistan." "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis. There will be Aramco [the consortium of oil companies that controlled Saudi oil], pipelines, an emir, no parliament and lots of Sharia law. We can live with that," said another U.S. diplomat in 1997."
The TALIBAN was established under U.S. AUSPICES?
Yeah, but when they shut down opium production and backed off the oil pipelines we no longer could, America.
