Negotiating With The Enemy? What Next...

[IGetItAlready]

US Sweetens Deal With Taliban

Fundamental change indeed...

 

[waltky]

Here's what's next - Taliban afraid of girls being educated...

Taliban gunmen shoot 14-year-old girl activist
Oct 9,`12 -- Fourteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai was admired across a battle-scarred region of Pakistan for exposing the Taliban's atrocities and advocating for girls' education in the face of religious extremists. On Tuesday, the Taliban nearly killed her to quiet her message.

A gunman walked up to a bus taking children home from school in the volatile northern Swat Valley and shot Malala in the head and neck. Another girl on the bus was also wounded. The young activist was airlifted by helicopter to a military hospital in the frontier city of Peshawar. A doctor in the city of Mingora, Tariq Mohammad, said her wounds weren't life-threatening, but a provincial information minister said after a medical board examined the girl that the next few days would be crucial.

Malala began writing a blog when she was just 11 under the pseudonym Gul Makai for the BBC about life under the Taliban, and began speaking out publicly in 2009 about the need for girls' education - which the Taliban strongly opposes. The extremist movement was quick to claim responsibility for shooting her. "This was a new chapter of obscenity, and we have to finish this chapter," Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan by telephone.

The shooting provoked outrage across the country, angering Pakistanis who have seen a succession of stories about violence against women by the Taliban. "This attack cannot scare us nor the courageous Malala. This cowardly act cannot deter Malala to give up her efforts," said Azizul Hasan, one of the girl's cousins. Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf condemned the attack and called her a daughter of Pakistan. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called the shooting "barbaric" and "cowardly."

Leila Zerrougui, the U.N. special representative for children in armed conflict, condemned the attack "in the harshest terms." "Education is a fundamental right for all children," she said in a statement. The Taliban "must respect the right to education of all children, including girls, to go to school and live in peace." The attack displayed the viciousness of Islamic militants in the Swat Valley, where the military conducted a major operation in 2009 to clear out insurgents, and a reminder of the challenges the government faces in keeping the area free of militant influence.

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See also:

Outcry over Pakistan attack on activist Malala Yousafza, 14
9 October 2012 - Malala Yousafzai was hit in the head, but is reportedly out of danger

An attack by Taliban gunmen in north-west Pakistan that wounded a 14-year-old who campaigned for girls' rights has caused an outcry in the country. Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head on her way home from school in Mingora, the main town in the Swat Valley. The president and prime minister have led condemnation of the attack. Initial reports suggested she was out of danger, but there is growing concern over her condition with some reports saying she may need treatment abroad.

A Pakistani Taliban spokesman told the BBC they carried out the attack. Ehsanullah Ehsan told BBC Urdu that they attacked her because she was anti-Taliban and secular, adding that she would not be spared. Malala Yousafzai came to public attention in 2009 by writing a diary for BBC Urdu about life under Taliban militants who had taken control of the valley.

'Courage silenced'

Almost immediately afterwards, the attack was condemned by politicians and media personalities. President Asif Ali Zardari said that Tuesday's attack would not shake Pakistan's resolve to fight Islamist militants or the government's determination to support women's education. He said that the aim of the "terrorists" who carried it out was to weaken the resolve of the nation - but the country would continue its fight against militants "until its logical conclusion". In a statement about the attack, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said: "We have to fight the mindset that is involved in this. We have to condemn it... Malala is like my daughter, and yours too. If that mindset prevails, then whose daughter would be safe?"

The attack has also been condemned by most of Pakistan's major political parties, TV celebrities and human rights groups including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) and Amnesty International. HRCP senior official Kamila Hayat praised Malala Yousafzai for standing up to the militants and sending a message across the world that Pakistani girls had the courage to fight for their rights. But she also worried that Tuesday's shooting would prevent other parents from letting their children speak out against the Taliban. "This is an attack to silence courage through a bullet," Ms Hayat said. "These are the forces who want to take us to the dark ages." Malala Yousafzai was travelling with at least one other girl when she was shot, but there are differing accounts of how events unfolded.

One report, citing local sources, says a bearded gunman stopped a car full of schoolgirls, and asked for Malala Yousafzai by name, before opening fire. But a police official also told BBC Urdu that unidentified gunmen opened fire on the schoolgirls as they were about to board a van or bus. She was hit in the head and, some reports say, in the neck area by a second bullet. Another girl who was with her at the time was also injured. Doctors who treated her in Mingora initially said she was out of danger. She has now been taken by helicopter to Peshawar for further treatment, officials say.

Suffering exposed

 

[Clementine]

I can't think of a time when negotiating with terrorists turned out well.

Apologizing for 4 years hasn't impressed them either, but that has become a cornerstone to Obama's foreign policy.

They are very well aware at this point that they can get away with killing innocents and still be able to make demands and have them met. Their treatment of women is horrifying. The only thing that is clear is that there is no compromising with them. They want us dead, we don't. The compromise would be killing half of us, maybe? You just don't make deals with this assholes and trust them to keep up their end of the bargain.

 

[Dissent]

So we should just keeping wasting billions fighting a war we can't win? Mmkk...sounds good to me.

 

[Dissent]

Oh and yeah you do negotiate with the enemy when you are losing you try to bring an end to the war YOU started.

 

[waltky]

Taliban a bigger problem in Pakistan than American drones...

Pakistan's plague is the Taliban, not US drones
October 10, 2012, I'm not sure if there's a Pakistani version of Pogo, but there should be, because after what happened there this week, his famous line -- "We have met the enemy, and he is us" -- certainly seems to apply.

Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old girl in Pakistan's Swat Valley, was shot in the head Tuesday while riding on her school bus. The Pakistani Taliban quickly claimed responsibility. Yousafzai's crime? She had spoken out against the group and its attempts to ban education for girls. And for that she got a bullet in the head. On Wednesday, Yousafzai was recovering from surgery and appeared to be out of danger, doctors said. But as outrage spread across the country, the Taliban didn't back down: "We are dead against coeducation and secular education," Taliban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said in a statement released to the media. "Malala was targeted because of her pioneer role in preaching secularism. ... And whom so ever will [do the same] in the future will again be targeted by the [Pakistani Taliban]."

As I read the stories on the shooting of Yousafzai, I thought of The Times' Op-Ed article last week by Jennifer Gibson headlined “Living with death by drone.” Gibson, a staff attorney with Reprieve, a London-based legal charity that represents dozens of Pakistani drone victims, was part of a Stanford University "research team that visited Pakistan and produced a report titled "Living Under Drones." Gibson writes movingly of the terror that ordinary folks in Pakistan feel as U.S. drones fly overhead, targeting insurgents but also killing innocent civilians. "People in the United States imagine that drones fly to a target, launch their deadly missiles with surgical precision and return to a U.S. base hundreds or thousands of miles away. But drones are a constant presence in the skies above the North Waziristan tribal area in Pakistan, with as many as six hovering over villages at any one time. People hear them day and night. They are an inescapable presence, the looming specter of death from above. "And that presence is steadily destroying a community twice the size of Rhode Island. Parents are afraid to send their children to school. Women are afraid to meet in markets. Families are afraid to gather at funerals for people wrongly killed in earlier strikes. Drivers are afraid to deliver food from other parts of the country."

And her conclusion?

"Of course, we should ask whether drones are legal under international law; my view is that they are not. Of course, we should ask whether drones are counterproductive; my view is that they are." But here's what I wonder: What would Gibson say to Malala Yousafzai? American drones may indeed be a poor solution to the problem of the Taliban in Pakistan. But segments of the Pakistani government, security services and the general population have either supported or ignored the group for a long time.

The price for that policy is that 14-year-old girls who just want to get an education are targeted for assassination. And this isn't the horrible "honor killings" or acid attacks or whatever that we read about. This is a group attempting to kill a young girl to make a political statement. How do you deal with such people? Sadly, I say you have to fight fire with fire. Gibson's right. People are cowering in terror in their homes in Pakistan, fearful of U.S. drones. But there are many kinds of terror, and in Pakistan, too much of it is home-grown. So at this point, those terrible, deadly drones help Americans -- and girls like Malala Yousafzai -- sleep at night, knowing that they keep the Taliban from doing the same.

Source

 

[Oldguy]

US Sweetens Deal With Taliban

Fundamental change indeed...

Ok. When you can't defeat the enemy militarily, what do you do?

ps: We can't now defeat them militarily because that was never the objective from day 1 of George Bush's strategy.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

The only way wars ever end is by "negotiating with the enemy".

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

Taliban shooting of 14-year old sparks outrage in Pakistan - CSMonitor.com

Good idea to negotiate with an organization that finds it acceptable to assassinate 14-year-old girls.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

The only way wars ever end is by "negotiating with the enemy".

Is that how WWII ended? IDIOT.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

The only way wars ever end is by "negotiating with the enemy".

Simply not true. Or perhaps you can tell us of the "negotiating" we did with Italy, Germany and Japan in WW2?

We negotiated with North Vietnam and they simply broke their treaty as soon as the Liberals in Congress refused to honor our commitments to South Vietnam.

How about all that "negotiating" with the Cubans on Grenada?

 

[Dissent]

Taliban shooting of 14-year old sparks outrage in Pakistan - CSMonitor.com

Good idea to negotiate with an organization that finds it acceptable to assassinate 14-year-old girls.

Our president had a 16 year old child murdered by drone...AND he was a US citizen.So get off the high horse.

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

Taliban shooting of 14-year old sparks outrage in Pakistan - CSMonitor.com

Good idea to negotiate with an organization that finds it acceptable to assassinate 14-year-old girls.

Our president had a 16 year old child murdered by drone...AND he was a US citizen.So get off the high horse.

You get off your high horse. Obama didn't murder a 16 year-old. Go fake audit somewhere else agent triple oh seven.

 

[Dissent]

Orly?! He ordered the drone attack that killed the 16 year old and his father.Abdulrahman al-Awlaki Death - Tom Junod on the Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama - Esquire

 

[Oldguy]

The only way wars ever end is by "negotiating with the enemy".

Simply not true. Or perhaps you can tell us of the "negotiating" we did with Italy, Germany and Japan in WW2?

We negotiated with North Vietnam and they simply broke their treaty as soon as the Liberals in Congress refused to honor our commitments to South Vietnam.

How about all that "negotiating" with the Cubans on Grenada?

WWII was total war, something we haven't fought since then, but should have. EVERY war should be total war, but they don't let me make that determination.

 

[Oldguy]

Orly?! He ordered the drone attack that killed the 16 year old and his father.Abdulrahman al-Awlaki Death - Tom Junod on the Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama - Esquire

Alirght, wise guy....what would YOU do when the bad guys hide among the innocent?

 

[TheGreatGatsby]

Orly?! He ordered the drone attack that killed the 16 year old and his father.Abdulrahman al-Awlaki Death - Tom Junod on the Lethal Presidency of Barack Obama - Esquire

You don't know if that was a murder of an assassination of a terrorist. We do know that the girl was merely a peaceful blogger.

 

[bodecea]

US Sweetens Deal With Taliban

Fundamental change indeed...

So...you disapproved of our negotiations to end WWI, WWII, Korea, & Viet Nam.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

US Sweetens Deal With Taliban

Fundamental change indeed...

So...you disapproved of our negotiations to end WWI, WWII, Korea, & Viet Nam.

We had nothing to do with the peace treaty that ended WW1 and we negotiated with no one on WW2, as to Korea and Vietnam, we can see how effective negotiating was can't we?

 

[Oldguy]

we can see how effective negotiating was can't we?

What's the alternative in Afghanistan?