I don't know why British Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants to talk to the Taliban, or what he thinks he can accomplish by engaging in any kind of dialogue with them. Evidently he was in a coma during the time they destroyed ancient Buddhist statues despite widespread and consistent international appeals. Or maybe it never occurred to him to wonder why, out of all the world's nations, only three of them-Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emirates, and Pakistan-recognized their regime during their time in power.
I think more than likely he's too naive to understand that asking for a dialogue would probably be seen by them as asking for terms. Those terms would probably amount to them telling Brown, over a cordial cup of tea, to "get the hell out of our country and we won't kill your people".
Of course, according to this article, the Brown government insists the Taliban are not really that powerful, that many of their fighters are farmers that are forced to join their militias at "the point of a gun".
Even if that's true, their assessment of that aspect seems pretty contradictory to me.
Then, they go on to say that we should separate the Taliban from the Pakistani radicals and Al-Queda that have infiltrated the country. Yeah, good idea, let's just forget the fact that Al-Queda went there to begin with at the invitation and with the support of the Taliban, who refused point blank to turn Bin Laden over to the US after 9/11.
With all the evidence pointing to Bin Laden, they refused to even talk about it. So what does Brown have that makes him think they will come to the negotiating table in good faith?
In the meantime, Canada seems to be poised to withdraw from the conflict. Little wonder, as they are one of the few nations there that actually have a combat operations role, the others being the US, Britain, and the Netherlands. While there, their casualties have been the proportionate equal of those suffered by the US, while no progress is to be seen.
All the other nations there, such as France and Germany, are limited to non-combat functions. No wonder the Taliban is resurgent. Somebody somewhere is making a hell of a lot of money off Afghan opium production, and if Brown does talk to the Taliban, somebody somewhere should throw that in there.
Nobody seems to want to cut that source of Taliban money off, for some strange reason. With that kind of weakness on display for all the world to see, why should the Taliban talk to Brown, or to anyone else?
What started out as a war is turning into a blood sport, and the Taliban are the ones that seem to be on the winning side. Much more and it might be legitmately described as their national pasttime.
2bvq25
I think more than likely he's too naive to understand that asking for a dialogue would probably be seen by them as asking for terms. Those terms would probably amount to them telling Brown, over a cordial cup of tea, to "get the hell out of our country and we won't kill your people".
Of course, according to this article, the Brown government insists the Taliban are not really that powerful, that many of their fighters are farmers that are forced to join their militias at "the point of a gun".
Even if that's true, their assessment of that aspect seems pretty contradictory to me.
Then, they go on to say that we should separate the Taliban from the Pakistani radicals and Al-Queda that have infiltrated the country. Yeah, good idea, let's just forget the fact that Al-Queda went there to begin with at the invitation and with the support of the Taliban, who refused point blank to turn Bin Laden over to the US after 9/11.
With all the evidence pointing to Bin Laden, they refused to even talk about it. So what does Brown have that makes him think they will come to the negotiating table in good faith?
In the meantime, Canada seems to be poised to withdraw from the conflict. Little wonder, as they are one of the few nations there that actually have a combat operations role, the others being the US, Britain, and the Netherlands. While there, their casualties have been the proportionate equal of those suffered by the US, while no progress is to be seen.
All the other nations there, such as France and Germany, are limited to non-combat functions. No wonder the Taliban is resurgent. Somebody somewhere is making a hell of a lot of money off Afghan opium production, and if Brown does talk to the Taliban, somebody somewhere should throw that in there.
Nobody seems to want to cut that source of Taliban money off, for some strange reason. With that kind of weakness on display for all the world to see, why should the Taliban talk to Brown, or to anyone else?
What started out as a war is turning into a blood sport, and the Taliban are the ones that seem to be on the winning side. Much more and it might be legitmately described as their national pasttime.
2bvq25
