"Briton calls for talks with Afghan rebels; Miliband says force opened an opportunity" by James F. Smith, Globe Staff | March 11, 2010
CAMBRIDGE — British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told an audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology yesterday that the government of Afghanistan should push for a broad political settlement with Afghan rebel leaders to take advantage of the momentum generated in recent months by the US and British military drive against Taliban insurgents.
In an address titled “The War in Afghanistan: How to End It,’’ Miliband said the Afghan government should try to win over not only low-level rebel fighters but should also try to engage insurgent leaders and other political foes who are willing to enter into a dialogue. He said the government effort should be undertaken even if it means making concessions.
I would just like to say how OFFENSIVE this is to me after YEARS of TYPING the VERY SAME THING!
I'm ALL FOR IT, mind you; however, I am really NOT BELIEVING IT because despite the chatter of peace talks they never reach fruition and are soon dropped by the agenda-pushing papers.
“The idea of political engagement with those who would directly or indirectly attack our troops is difficult,’’ Miliband said in a prepared text. “But dialogue is not appeasement and political space is not the same as veto power or domination.’’
Sigh.
Along with engaging domestic political foes and insurgent leaders, Afghanistan should reach out to neighboring countries, including Pakistan, India, and Iran, and work for “a new external political settlement,’’ Miliband said.
“There needs to be a greater effort to reach out not just to disaffected Afghans, but the country’s neighbors,’’ he said.
So when can WE LEAVE, Dave?
Miliband’s appeal for engagement seemed designed to step up the pressure on President Hamid Karzai to act more forcefully to exploit the political opportunity that has been forged at great cost by the US troop surge and the month-old US-British military offensive in the south.
First, they are acting like the operation is already over and a success, and secondly, so much for all the people killed "securing" the town, 'eh?
No "cost" to Afghans, huh, Davey?
At the same time, Miliband may be offering the Obama administration political room to embrace negotiations with the Taliban. The United States has been willing to encourage reintegration of low-level fighters who are willing to turn in their weapons, but Washington has stopped short of endorsing negotiations with the Taliban’s seniormost leadership.
Miliband said Karzai can now claim a measure of political legitimacy through his reelection last year, as flawed as it was by fraud allegations....
Yeah, this ain't Iran! This is an APPROVED STOOGE!
Miliband noted that the Pashtun who form Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group were “seriously underrepresented’’ in that post-Taliban political settlement, in the government as well as in the Afghan Army.
Also see: Taliban I Told You So
Yeah, quit demonizing innocent people who just happen to live there.
The system is also too highly centralized, Miliband said, failing to embrace the informal local structures of justice and power that Afghans use to run their lives.
Then why is AmeriKa moving in the OPPOSITE DIRECTION, huh?
And all of these systemic problems mean that simply paying low-level rebels to leave the Taliban won’t be sufficient, he added.
That's because it is not about the money, it is about THEIR HOMES and FAMILIES!!
“My case today is that a reintegration program will have major impact only if it is coupled with a serious effort to address the grievances of those whom President Karzai describes as his ‘disaffected compatriots’,’’ Miliband said. Getting insurgents to switch sides will be difficult “without a genuine effort to understand and ultimately address the wider concerns which fuel the insurgency.’’
One: STOP KILLING THEM!
Miliband acknowledged that many political analysts have argued that the extraordinarily complex tensions in the region mean Afghanistan “is fated to remain the victim of a zero-sum scramble for power amongst hostile neighbors,’’ and that peace will be impossible unless those regional squabbles are settled.
“But there is an alternative, more promising story, in which Afghanistan is so dangerous for the region that it becomes the place where more cooperative regional relations are forged,’’ Miliband said.
I swear, these guys are warped.
Up is down, cold is hot, war is peace, death is life.
In this view, neighbors should be willing to work with Afghanistan to control the corruption, drug-trafficking, and other ills that can infect neighboring states if ignored.
Well, TALIBAN DID THAT:
"U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan -- once the world's largest producer -- since banning poppy cultivation last summer."
They got an INVASION for their efforts!
In a meeting with editors at The Boston Globe earlier in the day, Miliband said....
Who cares?
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"Outgoing UN envoy issues warning on Afghanistan; Stresses need for political solution to ending conflict" by Abdul Waheed Wafa, New York Times | March 5, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan - The departing head of the UN mission in Afghanistan warned yesterday that the window to achieve success in Afghanistan was narrowing and that “negative trends’’ in the country could become irreversible over the next year.
But HOW CAN THAT BE when we have REGAINED the MOMENTUM?
Speaking at his final news conference as the UN special representative in Afghanistan, Kai Eide stressed the need for a political solution to end the conflict with the Taliban.
I'm ALL FOR IT! It's just that the war-profiteers and bank launderers are not.
He also cautioned against excessive militarization of international efforts in Afghanistan, a longstanding concern that has taken on greater significance as the American-led military operation grows and includes more nation-building....
Little LATE for that, isn't it?
Last year was the deadliest since 2001 for members of the NATO-led military coalition and Afghan civilians. Saying that “clocks in foreign countries tick faster’’ than change can occur in Afghanistan, Eide called for international patience with the slow pace of progress.
Is that why Israel is pushing this attack on Iran thing?
He said any resolution to the conflict needed to balance military and political approaches.
Actually, screw balance!
Remove the military component completely and COME HOME!
“I believe that a political process is indispensable for finding a solution to this conflict,’’ he said. “I believe the focus is too much on military side and too little on political side and civilian side, and our strategy has unfortunately been too much military driven.’’
Hey, we are an Empire; it is all we have left to offer.
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