Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Petraeus Says 'Talk to the Taliban'

The idea of talking with the Taliban isn't as crazy as it sounds.

General Petraeus' idea is to start dealing with "less extreme" elements of the Taliban. Something like this was done in Iraq, when America talked with Sunni tribes who eventually helped kick Al Qaeda out of Iraq.1

If the plan goes through, the Afghan government will be handling the talks: with "active participation" by America.

I think it makes sense. Individuals, and groups, may have many reasons for teaming up with the Taliban - if they're not like the Iraqi kooks who killed a man for wearing trousers, and not praying.

In the news: 1 I know: there's still trouble in Iraq. But nowhere near as much as earlier. Following the annoying success of common-sense diplomacy and the troop surge, Marines have pulled out of Fallujah, and a football pitch (soccer pitch to Americans) has replaced terrorist rocket launchers in a Baghdad park.

Don't tell the Code Pink crowd, though. They might get (more) upset.
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2 comments:

Brian H. Gill said...

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October 30, 2008 at 12:38 AM
Brian H. Gill said...

Straight Talk on McCain,

I took a quick glance at your blog.

An excerpt from a recent post" " 'No one will delay the World Series game with an infomercial when I'm president,' so said John McCain. Of course, how a president has the power to decide when a baseball game starts I have no clue. But once again, McCain is just trying to score cheap political points...."

That, added to your rhetorical "When will we finally get to know the real McCain?" hints that your views are somewhere this side of those I discussed in "Obama's a Radical Muslim; McCain's a Racist: Facts, Mud and the Anonymous Expert" (October 7, 2008) - but that you regard Barack Obama as the better candidate.

Taking the question in a non-rhetorical sense, I think we will "finally" get to know the real McCain long after the next eight years are gone.

However, I'm pretty sure that a preliminary evaluation can be make of the McCain presidency - or the Obama presidency - within a couple of years.

I do not regard McCain as a perfect candidate, by any means.

But I'd much rather discover what sort of president he makes, than Obama.

I touch on reasons in "Barack Obama's Redistributive Change " (October 29, 2008).

October 30, 2008 at 12:53 AM

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Blogroll

Note! Although I believe that these websites and blogs are useful resources for understanding the War on Terror, I do not necessarily agree with their opinions. 1 1 Given a recent misunderstanding of the phrase "useful resources," a clarification: I do not limit my reading to resources which support my views, or even to those which appear to be accurate. Reading opinions contrary to what I believed has been very useful at times: sometimes verifying my previous assumptions, sometimes encouraging me to change them.

Even resources which, in my opinion, are simply inaccurate are sometimes useful: these can give valuable insights into why some people or groups believe what they do.

In short, It is my opinion that some of the resources in this blogroll are neither accurate, nor unbiased. I do, however, believe that they are useful in understanding the War on Terror, the many versions of Islam, terrorism, and related topics.