Karzai, who has repeatedly offered peace talks, said he would personally meet with Taliban's fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, chief of another insurgent group.
Karzai said he would allocate some government posts to the Taliban and if Hekmatyar and Omar wanted power, both could stand in the elections, due to be held in 2009.
To even consider allowing Omar a role in the government is a complete affront to all the moral arguments posited to support the war. Karzai is prepared to allow the man who harbored and sponsored Al Qaeda, repressed all those woman and school children who we are supposedly liberating, destroyed the country by our own estimates, back into the fold. What exactly are Canadian troops doing then, what exactly are they dying for? This desire by Karzai is amazing, considering what is happening with our troops at the moment.
Canada should suspend all military operations, focus on the "safe" areas, reconstruction and training, until Karzai figures out if there is an enemy afterall. People are clearly operating at cross-purposes. The term Taliban is a loose characterization, because the insurgents take different forms. If someone proposed negotiating with some tribal elders who are resisting, that is one thing, but to bring Mullah Omar, the leader that plunged the world into this mess in the first place, another opportunity to yield power, is preposterous. All the rhetoric to support the war is nonsense if this development actually occurs, and military operations amount to a sick joke.
14 comments:
Good points Steve. I knew it was only a matter of time before Old School started defending the Taliban.... his positions are always that confusing.
I just erase his nonsense now :) There's no substance, it's just jabs.
ahhh ok ...I can relate to that.
That's funny. Liberals say they would negotiate with anyone. Karzai says he'll consider it - and all of a sudden you jump on him.
But okay,
Hypocrisy is a Liberal brand too...
I've always supported the mission in Afghanistan since it started, because the opportunity was there to reform the country and rebuild it from the insanity of the Taliban. But if Karzai is going to pull a stunt like this and undo everything we've worked for these past 5 years, then fuck it. fuck him, fuck Afghanistan, fuck the Taliban. Pull out and let them torture, blow up and kill themselves all they want.
"That's funny. Liberals say they would negotiate with anyone. Karzai says he'll consider it - and all of a sudden you jump on him."
So you support bringing Omar back to power? Interesting. Now I'm the blind Liberal partisan again. LOL.
I just heard MacKay say that this is just the next step in the ongoing process in Afghanistan. Huh?
You mean all the time he was calling the opposition, Taliban sympathisers and referring to Layton as Taliban Jack, the con's had this planned?
If MacKay is backing this move, even with conditions, haven't they simply renounced all their former positions?
All these 20 months, I've watched con's fall all over themselves, defending their Lord and Master Harper, as he step by step goes back on every stance he took pre-election. This one is a doozy.
If MacKay misspoke, more fodder for the bumbling position of Foreign Affairs. If not, more fodder for the hypocrisy position.
I don't know Steve, it's tempting to think of being back in the House, keeping their feet to fire, exposing them and choosing a time and topic that we can control through an election.
Bottom line, I don't think any of this will come to pass, given the Constitution that the Taliban put out recently. I see no compromise with the two parties.
knb
MacKay acted as if Karzai's comments were nothing new and this move was the next phase. If we are entering the end game, then what is the point of Canadians trying to take more ground and killing the soon to be government officials? Why not just cease operations on the military front, concentrate on the other aspects, since Karzai basically admits that defeat is impossible.
I hear your point about parliament, but you have to wonder how effective the Libs can be if they appear to prop up the government. Layton will have a field day.
I hear yours too and I hven't really weighed both options fully yet.
It just seemed tempting, :).
First of all it is incredible how a few redneck sitting around here /like some bloodsucker bugs /and put their prea cut responses right up in Moments after new posts appear ...like almost as Duty,,, As Steve says jabs without real substance .obviously they have nothing else going on in their own life but playing out the life as a Bug..
Anyway what I really want to say is You all should take a step back and see the big picture .
This Quebec thing and the need to "make them happy' /I was very polite here .../ can backfire on Harper and in my view it will.
What if we let Quebec Transform to Conservative ,,,, and the rest of Canada band Together as mostly Liberal ???
what I am saying all the Pundits and Bloggers are showing some myopic view of all things regarding the possibility of an election and the chances and Dion especially.
Vast majority of Canadians can see through all the Harper's manipulations..and there is nothing substantial or impressive he actually delivered /except FOR QUEBEC >>>/
I do expect a Good platform From Dion.. we never saw it yet..
marta
I Forgot to tell Afganistan is NOT our war.. We Can't change the Culture of the Afgans with some Troops ,
Cut and Come home.
marta
marta
Good points. I've always argued there are two concurrent themes, for all the Liberal troubles, Harper hasn't capitalized one IOTA, which is quite a testament to his own failings.
When the Americans and the South Vietnamese government began talks with the North Vietnamese they actually stepped up military operations.
The theory was such actions would put greater pressure on the North during the talks.
I imagine NATO will have a similar theory with regard to negotiations with the Taliban.
Karzai has been negotiation with the Taliban for some time. This is nothing new, the Taliban is fractured.
Setting terms under which the Taliban could occupy a seat in the Karzai government is new, (?)
''Mr. MacKay says any co-operation must include the preconditions that Mr. Karzai has laid out. Those include the Taliban's renunciation of violence
and
acceptance of the fact that NATO forces aren't leaving the country any time soon.''
CP
This sounds like progress, and promising there could be an end to the bloodletting.
Isn't that why we are there...to bring peace and human rights to the Afghan people !
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