Monday
Feb222010
Talks With Taliban:Experts Debate Pros and Cons
Monday, February 22, 2010 at 5:02PM
Talks With Taliban: Experts Debate Pros and Cons
New York--Victory in Afghanistan will not be achieved through military action but through negotiations argued Pakistani journalist and author Ahmed Rashid during a discussion at the Council on Foreign Relation this afternoon.
Rashid says the next few months will be critical in deciding if the US will negotiate but that Obama's new time frame for withdrawal might encourage Pakistani intelligence agencies and military to seriously broker possible US/Taliban talks.
But public reaction to negotiations might be a challenge.
Marvin G Weinbaum, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois warned that negotiations at this point could impair the current military surge and be perceived as an act of weakness.
"Striking the grand bargain would be foolish" said Weinbaum, who also served as a Pakistan and Afghanistan Analyst at the US Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research between 1999 and 2003. Weinbaum says one of the military operation's goals is to undermine local civilian perception of the Taliban, but that hasty negotiations could in fact legitimize the group. He believes negotiations need to begin once the Taliban has been weakened, so a process of integration rather than reconciliation with the armed group can be undertaken.
Meanwhile, US and NATO operations suffered a blow in their attempts to change Afghan perceptions of the war, when at least 27 civilians were killed during air strikes in Uruzgan province. The NATO led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has already acknowledged responsibility and apoligized for deaths, while Special Representative for the Secretary General in Afghanistan Robert Watkins called once again on all parties involved in the conflict to avoid civilian casualties
New York--Victory in Afghanistan will not be achieved through military action but through negotiations argued Pakistani journalist and author Ahmed Rashid during a discussion at the Council on Foreign Relation this afternoon.
Rashid says the next few months will be critical in deciding if the US will negotiate but that Obama's new time frame for withdrawal might encourage Pakistani intelligence agencies and military to seriously broker possible US/Taliban talks.
But public reaction to negotiations might be a challenge.
Marvin G Weinbaum, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois warned that negotiations at this point could impair the current military surge and be perceived as an act of weakness.
"Striking the grand bargain would be foolish" said Weinbaum, who also served as a Pakistan and Afghanistan Analyst at the US Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research between 1999 and 2003. Weinbaum says one of the military operation's goals is to undermine local civilian perception of the Taliban, but that hasty negotiations could in fact legitimize the group. He believes negotiations need to begin once the Taliban has been weakened, so a process of integration rather than reconciliation with the armed group can be undertaken.
Meanwhile, US and NATO operations suffered a blow in their attempts to change Afghan perceptions of the war, when at least 27 civilians were killed during air strikes in Uruzgan province. The NATO led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has already acknowledged responsibility and apoligized for deaths, while Special Representative for the Secretary General in Afghanistan Robert Watkins called once again on all parties involved in the conflict to avoid civilian casualties
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