View Full Version : President Obama Considers Outreach To Taliban
Bill Harsey
03-07-2009, 21:54
President Obama considers outreach to parts of the Taliban.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/us/politics/08obama.html
This is either brilliant or profoundly naive.
Brilliant if he tries and fails then has all the reason he might need to take the gloves off (as if we haven't) or can it be the latter?
I couldn't believe it when I heard it. The Taliban must be doing a happy dance while loading magazines.
Edited to add: If The President was quoted accurately.
The Reaper
03-07-2009, 22:00
I think that the POTUS, VPOTUS, Speaker Pelosi, and Senator Reid should go to them and personally carry the good news.
As part of austerity measures to reduce the budget deficit, I further propose that they leave their evil guns, security forces, and PSDs at home for the meeting with the kinder, gentler Taliban.
TR
8 years worth of war dead just rolled over in the grave...
...lets make nice with the savages
...the dream that just wont end
IMHO, the following comment says much if not all about the president's approach to his job. The president reportedly said:
The situation in Afghanistan is, if anything, more complex[.] You have a less governed region, a history of fierce independence among tribes. Those tribes are multiple and sometimes operate at cross purposes, and so figuring all that out is going to be much more of a challenge.
Some of the most intelligent presidents (Wilson, Hoover, Nixon, and Carter) have demonstrated that deliberative thought can paradoxically inhibit the development of viable solutions to the nation's problems.
The 'smartest' plan is not always the wisest plan, especially when the smartest man in the room actually isn't.
TOMAHAWK9521
03-08-2009, 01:53
[QUOTE The situation in Afghanistan is, if anything, more complex[.] You have a less governed region, a history of fierce independence among tribes. Those tribes are multiple and sometimes operate at cross purposes, and so figuring all that out is going to be much more of a challenge./QUOTE]
Jeepers! If only this insight had been around back in '01-'02, we could have used this brilliance to prevent further bloodshed. Hey, thanks for the news flash, genius! I don't think the world was aware of this, especially not over the past 8 years.
This administration is at the forefront of mastering the ability of sensationalizing everything, including the absurdly obvious. Almost makes me want to gouge my eyes out with a wooden spoon.
"Moderate Taliban"???? WTF, over? That is the best oxymoron I have heard in a verrrryyyy long time!!! Is there such an "thing"?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090308/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_taliban
Asked in an interview with The New York Times if the United States is winning in Afghanistan, Obama said "no," while adding "our troops are doing an extraordinary job in a very difficult situation."
Oh yeah, gotta love that! There's support from the POTUS! Tear down our troops with one word but support them in the next sentence? :confused:
IMHO, there is no negotiating with a group of people (and using that word to describe them makes me want to scratch out my eyes) like them is the equivalant to banging one's head against the wall. You cannot negotiate, reason or compromise with them. I have spent the last couple of days with guys that knew our lastest "fallen Warriors" and the amount of pain that I have seen solidifies the emotions. Mr. Barry is a complete and utter fool!!
I am a firm believer...."we do not negotiate with terrorists"!!! The idealism of the POTUS and his sitting regime of gobshites will be the ruin of our soldiers and our Grand Country. Heaven help us! :mad::mad:
Sorry about the rant, emotions have been running high the last couple of weeks and especially the last couple of days here at Mother Bragg.... but I am so sick and tired of the rhetoric from this POS and his total lack of understanding of what these" extremists" are truly like. He needs to buy a clue!!
Please, forgive my rant...this runs very deep to the heart.
This Irish Lass is .....OUT!
Trip_Wire (RIP)
03-08-2009, 13:42
I think that the POTUS, VPOTUS, Speaker Pelosi, and Senator Reid should go to them and personally carry the good news.
As part of austerity measures to reduce the budget deficit, I further propose that they leave their evil guns, security forces, and PSDs at home for the meeting with the kinder, gentler Taliban.
TR
Oh yeah! That would make me VERY happy! :D:D
armymom1228
03-08-2009, 16:10
Words fail me.
One does not negotiate with terrorists..they kill them and be done with it. :mad:
...lets make nice with the savages
They are just misunderstood :rolleyes:
Roguish Lawyer
03-08-2009, 19:10
I think that the POTUS, VPOTUS, Speaker Pelosi, and Senator Reid should go to them and personally carry the good news.
As part of austerity measures to reduce the budget deficit, I further propose that they leave their evil guns, security forces, and PSDs at home for the meeting with the kinder, gentler Taliban.
TR
LMAO, classic.
Not much support out there from those who should know. :(
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Obama's call on moderate Taliban useless: analysts
Sayed Salahuddin, Reuters, 9 Mar 2009
President Barack Obama's proposal to reach out to moderate Taliban will fail to end the Afghan insurgency as it is inflexible Taliban leaders who are orchestrating the war, not moderates, analysts said.
Obama, in an interview with the New York Times newspaper published on its website on Saturday, expressed an openness to adapting tactics in Afghanistan that had been used in Iraq to reach out to moderate elements there.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed Obama's proposal but analysts were doubtful.
"Obama's comment resemble a dream more than reality," said Waheed Mozhdah, an analyst who has written a book on the Taliban.
"Where are the so-called moderate Taliban? Who are the moderate Taliban?" asked Mozhdah, who was an official in both the Taliban and the Karzai governments.
Karzai's pro-Western administration and the growing number of foreign forces in Afghanistan have increasingly come under attack from a resurgent Taliban, with Obama now describing Afghanistan as a top foreign policy priority for his new administration.
"'Moderate Taliban' is like 'moderate killer'. Is there such a thing?," asked writer and analyst Qaseem Akhgar.
Obama did point out that compared to Iraq the situation was more complex in Afghanistan, where nearly 70,000 foreign troops, 38,000 of them American, are due to be joined in coming months by another 17,000 U.S. soldiers.
The number of foreign troops in Afghanistan has risen steadily since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001 after they refused to hand over al Qaeda leaders responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States.
The level of violence has also risen, as the Taliban have stepped up their campaign to force out Western troops.
Some Western politicians and military officers now say the war cannot be won by military means alone and a solution will have to involve some form of reconciliation.
"RIGID DEMANDS"
The key to ending Afghan violence lay in the hands of the Taliban leaders who are on a U.S. wanted list, Mozhdah said.
"Taliban leaders are behind the insurgency, not the so-called moderates. To put an end to the war, they have to be included in any talks, their views should be heard," Mozhdah said.
"Their names have to be removed from the list because they are the source of the crisis."
Pakistani analyst Rahimullah Yousufzai welcomed Obama's proposal to engage with moderates, saying the United States was finally coming around to the realization there would be no military solution.
But he too was skeptical about the chances of negotiating with the Taliban who have shown no hint of compromise on their main demand -- that foreign troops get out.
"They would like to pacify some elements of the Taliban but I have my doubts about this," he said.
"The Taliban are very rigid in their demands. They actually don't want to talk unless there is some guarantee that Western forces will leave," he said.
Analysts said Obama's proposal to reach out to moderate Taliban was also aimed at splitting the movement, although Karzai has failed to do that with his repeated offers over recent years to engage with moderates.
"I don't foresee much change on the ground ... Over the last eight years, there have been very few Taliban defections," said Yousufzai.
"They have Mullah Omar as their leader. They have to approach Mullah Omar and as we all know he is very inflexible."
In Iraq, the use of Sunni Muslim community leaders to employ their people to patrol their neighborhoods has been credited as one of the main reasons behind sharp falls in violence.
But Ahmad Saeedi, a former diplomat and analyst, said the tactic would not succeed in Afghanistan where arming militias would only become another headache for Kabul and the West.
Obama's call for reaching to moderate elements was aimed at appeasing European countries increasingly disillusioned with what looks like a war without end, ahead of a planned trip there, said Saeedi.
The United States needed to engage countries in the Afghanistan region and take on board their demands for solving Afghanistan's crisis, Saeedi said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090309/pl_nm/us_afghan_obama_talks;_ylt=AgCK08MpIZ8Xkvgr3DBsqPQ a.3QA
And the Taliban responds.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/09/content_10977772.htm
I take it, if you boil it down, the guy said "NO".
Bill Harsey
03-10-2009, 08:59
Nice to see that worked well.
CoLawman
03-10-2009, 09:19
Mujahed told Xinhua via phone from an unknown hideout that it is ridiculous to sort Taliban as so called "moderate" or "fundamental".
What an embicile Mujahed is. To presume he knows the Taliban's position better than Obama! With Obama in control this should be a quick and bloodless victory!
DbeforeD
03-10-2009, 11:15
What do you guys say again? 'embrace the suck'?
Why do I get the feeling that this next term is going to be like Richard Simmons getting the head coach job for the Pittsburgh Steelers?
Prolly wanted to recruit the fuckers for his internal security force.
Dozer523
03-10-2009, 14:51
This was posted on the AKO Early Bird News
London Daily Telegraph
March 10, 2009
US General Admits Coalition Not Winning In Large Areas Of Afghanistan Including British Run South International forces are "not winning" the battle against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan, the head of the Nato-led coalition has said.
By Ben Farmer, in Kabul
General David McKiernan said progess was being made in parts of the country but in southern Afghanistan, where the majority of Britain's 8,500 troops are stationed, more had to be done. His remarks come a day after President Barack Obama also said America was not winning in Afghanistan. And David Miliband, the foreign secretary, recently warned of a "strategic stalemate" in parts of the country.
"There are other areas - large areas in the southern Afghanistan especially but in parts of the east - where we are not winning, where more has to happen along multiple lines of operation in order for anybody by any metric to say that the Afghans are winning or the efforts of the coalition are winning," he said. General McKiernan has asked for tens of thousands of reinforcements and President Obama has ordered 17,000 more US soldiers to the country. President Obama has also opened the door to talks with moderate elements of the Taliban. Commanders have described the situation in the southern province of Helmand Province, where British troops have been fighting for nearly three years, as "stalemate".
Thinly stretched British forces hold of string of district centres, but much of the countryside remains too dangerous for government officials or aid workers.
"Our challenge in the southern part of Afghanistan is that we don't have enough of a persistent security presence in all the areas that allow the other lines of operation - better governance - to develop in that area," Gen McKiernan said. "So these US forces, this force uplift, of which the majority will be positioned in the southern part of Afghanistan, I think will change security conditions there this year." A deadly insurgency campaign of roadside bombings has seen the British suffer their deadliest 12 months since the Afghan campaign began.
A combat brigade of several thousand US marines is due to arrive in Helmand this summer and fighting is expected to intensify further.