The Taliban finally ready
It seems that the US policy of trying to pursue peace with the Taliban in Afghanistan while simultaneously tightening the noose around them militarily has yielded a dividend. The Taliban have, for the first time, dropped their precondition of a withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan for peace talks.
The US is not the only one using the cocktail of peace offerings and military engagement. The Taliban themselves, while ready to open up a political office in Qatar, are also consolidating their resources in the fight against western forces in Afghanistan. The militia is said to have told its wing in Pakistan and other allied groups to cease and desist from attacks on Pakistani targets and redeploy instead for a possible March offensive against foreign forces in Afghanistan.
Like the first snowflake before a snowstorm, it was five years ago when the first western newspaper column asked the then unforgivable question: is it time to talk to the Taliban? Since then, the number of people advocating this increased till it started including senior military officials and policy makers. The most recent heavy-hitter to have reached the conclusion was American Vice President Joe Biden, emphatic in his claim that Al-Qaeda, not the Taliban were the enemy. All this change of heart was no doubt brought about by the stalemate that the coalition forces saw in Afghanistan. The Taliban regime fell nigh instantly, much like the Baathists in Iraq. But while the latter (and the other anti-American forces of Iraq) later on fizzled down into a workable arrangement, the Taliban maintained a relentless struggle. The militia’s refusal to talk, however, was way too big a stumbling block. Since that is no longer the case, endorsements of the talks might come from all the way up.
What are the implications for other players? Pakistan, no doubt, is going to be feeling a bit left-out in the whole affair, now that the Americans and the Taliban are going to be speaking to each other directly. In fact, western analysts allege that the arrest of Mullah Baradar, the Taliban government’s defence minister and the architect of the insurgency, from Karachi in 2009 was an attempt to circumvent a direct link between the US and the Taliban.
Attempts at peace are one of mankind’s most noble endeavours, they should never be written off completely for ideological reasons. But it should be borne in mind that there shouldn’t just be peace for peace’s sake. There should be a just peace, resulting in a regime that has an acceptable human rights record and one that cooperates with the rest of the world in matters of security.
