In what I consider to be a brilliant piece of diplomacy President Hamid Karzai is calling for peace in his country and is holding out the olive branch to Taliban leaders and low level fighters. His concept of peace is just a little bit different from the US concept. Karzai wants to include Taliban leaders in the process but the US does not. The US would be willing to offer repatriation to the low level Taliban fighters but not leaders.
President Karzai has just conducted a peace conference, or jirga, where he had about 1,500 attendees represented. None of the known Taliban leaders attended but I am sure that there were many there who are sympathetic to the Taliban, and I’m sure that whatever was discussed was made known to those Taliban leaders by someone who was at the conference.
This strategy is so good because it gives everyone an opportunity to save face. It puts President Karzai in the middle and makes him the good guy. The biggest obstacle remaining to our military ring customers being able to leave the country is the insistence of the Taliban that all of our forces leave before peace negotiations can begin. I think that we all know that it ain’t going to pan out that way.
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