By Robert Spencer
President Obama wants to open negotiations with moderate factions of the Taliban. On first reflection, that sounds reasonable. Something like this worked in Iraq, after all. Obama says that “part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of Al Qaeda in Iraq.” And “there may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and the Pakistani region,” although he grants that “the situation in Afghanistan is, if anything, more complex.”
And it is, for at least two reasons.
First, the Sunni insurgents among whom General Petraeus was able to gain confidence had turned against the al-Qaeda elements for their own reasons. Al-Qaeda in Iraq had forced themselves into the communities, onto the tribes, and even demanded sheiks’ daughters in marriage. Second, Petraeus had enough troops to provide local security to the former insurgents and their tribal leaders. Read more ...
President Obama wants to open negotiations with moderate factions of the Taliban. On first reflection, that sounds reasonable. Something like this worked in Iraq, after all. Obama says that “part of the success in Iraq involved reaching out to people that we would consider to be Islamic fundamentalists, but who were willing to work with us because they had been completely alienated by the tactics of Al Qaeda in Iraq.” And “there may be some comparable opportunities in Afghanistan and the Pakistani region,” although he grants that “the situation in Afghanistan is, if anything, more complex.”
And it is, for at least two reasons.
First, the Sunni insurgents among whom General Petraeus was able to gain confidence had turned against the al-Qaeda elements for their own reasons. Al-Qaeda in Iraq had forced themselves into the communities, onto the tribes, and even demanded sheiks’ daughters in marriage. Second, Petraeus had enough troops to provide local security to the former insurgents and their tribal leaders. Read more ...
Source: Human Events
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