"Five Taliban released for Sgt. Bergdahl? This is how wars end."

Five Taliban released for Sgt. Bergdahl? This is how wars end.

By Dan Murphy at the Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2014/0601/Five-Taliban-released-for-Sgt.-Bergdahl-This-is-how-wars-end

"SNIP..........................


Has the US damaged its own security by these releases? It's hard to see how. The Taliban have long been motivated to capture US soldiers - they will remain so as long as US soldiers remain on the battlefield to be possibly caught. Are the fellows released nasty characters, with brutal methods, harsh and unsparing interpretations of their faith, with horrible views about the role of women and minorities in society? Yes.

But they are not alone in these views within the Afghan political landscape. And Karzai's successor's best chance of holding things together in the country after the US withdrawal will be finding an accommodation with the enemies of the central government.

Partisan point scoring in the US over Obama being "weak on terrorism" in this regard misses the point. The US has gotten a soldier home. The Taliban have gotten something they wanted in exchange. And this just might - might - be part of a process of Afghan's negotiating an end to the war in their homeland.

Dealing with the Taliban ugly and uncomfortable? Yes. Uglier than finding a way to end a war that threatens to rage on for years yet?




..........................SNIP"