Peace Talks With Taliban Top Issue in Afghan Vote

Source: New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — Whether and how to negotiate peace with the Taliban has become the one issue that no candidate in the Afghan presidential election can avoid taking a stand on. There is broad agreement that the war must end, but debate swirls around whether the government of President Hamid Karzai is moving effectively toward persuading the Taliban to end their insurgency.

Although Mr. Karzai has often talked about negotiating with the Taliban, little concrete has happened. The government’s reconciliation program for Taliban fighters is barely functioning. A Saudi mediation effort has stalled. Last-minute efforts to engage the Taliban in order to allow elections to take place remain untested. Meanwhile the Obama administration has just sent thousands more troops here in an attempt to push back Taliban gains.

Mr. Karzai, who polls indicate is still the front-runner, is the most vocal candidate in calling for negotiations, pledging that if he is re-elected he will hold a traditional tribal gathering and invite members of the Taliban and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, another opposition leader, to make peace.

And just in the past few weeks, his government has started several initiatives to approach local Taliban commanders through tribal elders. The government also has started work to win over the tribes by hiring thousands of their young men to be part of a local protection force, primarily to ensure security for elections. But each of Mr. Karzai’s three main opponents is critical of his record in following through on such promises.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/world/asia/18taliban.html?em

He was put in by Bush and Cheney, and he is making a fortune working both sides of this war. He is a crook just like Bush and Cheney, and he needs to go if we are ever to get any kind of a peace settlement over there!

The U.S needs to withdraw its troops from this country, at which time the Afghans will develop their own peace settlement. The U.S. may not like the nature of that settlement, but the question is how many U.S. troops need to die, and how much do Americans want to spend, before people in this impoverished and backward country are left to sort it out themselves.

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