In the Arena
Afghanistan

Capturing the Taliban

By Joe Klein | @JoeKleinTIME | February 23, 2010 | +

Some excellent reporting from our colleague Tim McGirk about the complicated relationship between the Pakistanis and the Taliban–and the recent capture of Mullah Abdel Gani Baradar, the Taliban military commander who may have been on the outs with Mullah Omar.

Meanwhile, the New York Times is reporting that the Pakistanis seem to have captured yet another member of Mullah Omar’s inner circle. This might indicate that Baradar is being extremely cooperative, which might match up with McGirk’s reporting that the military commander was in favor of negotiating a reconciliation with the Afghan government.

Related Topics: Afghanistan, Uncategorized

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  • destor23

    Oh good, we’re finally close to capturing Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader who attacked us on 9/11.

    Oh wait… wrong guy! Where’s OBL?

  • afguy

    Oh, destor, OBL’s so “yesterday’s news”…
    .
    He’s probably on the beach at Monaco, trolling for chicks.
    .
    He’s turned the franchise over to the latest “Dread Pirate Roberts” 2nd 3rd 4th 8th in Command.

  • pintortwo

    The Taliban and Karzai have been negotiating toward reconciliation for a while:
    .
    Taliban leaders are holding Saudi-brokered talks with the Afghan government to end the country’s bloody conflict — and are severing their ties with al Qaeda, sources close to the historic discussions have told CNN. Oct 6, 2008 (link)
    .
    More importantly, the Obama administration seems to be warming up to the idea of reconciliation. According to Gareth Porter (link):
    .
    Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s very cautiously-worded support for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban leadership in an interview published Monday is only the first public signal of a policy decision by the Barack Obama administration to support a political settlement between the Hamid Karzai regime and the Taliban, an official of McChrystal’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) command has revealed in an interview with IPS.
    (…)
    The ISAF official, who spoke with IPS on condition that he would not be named, was much more candid about the centrality of peace negotiations with the Taliban leadership in the Obama administration’s strategy in Afghanistan and about the understanding of the ISAF command that the Taliban leadership is independent of al-Qaeda and is already positioning itself for a political settlement.
    .
    The official said the objective of the troop surge and the ISAF strategy accompanying it is to support a negotiated political settlement. “The story of the next 18 months is the story of establishing the conditions under which reconciliation will take place,” said the official.
    .
    …The debate is not on whether the Taliban movement will be participating in the Afghan political system, however, but on whether or not the administration could accept the participation of a specific individual – Mullah Omar…

  • afguy

    Isn’t all of this another way of saying that peace will begin to occur when those with an actual stake in the country start to work things out among themselves?

  • nflfoghorn

    Anyone check Crawford ranch?

  • pintortwo

    Bin Laden: Dead and Loving It
    by US Navy Cmdr Jeff Huber (link)
    .
    The title alone is worth the link.

  • Ike Jakson
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