U.S., Taliban Not Ready For Afghanistan Peace Talks

[High_Gravity]

U.S., Taliban Not Ready For Afghanistan Peace Talks

WASHINGTON -- As the Afghan war’s 10th fighting season gets underway, both U.S.-led troops and Taliban insurgents are battered and bloodied. Military and civilian casualties are piling up on both sides. But prospects for peace talks seem remote, and international diplomats and others say any actual settlement is years away.

And yet, conditions for negotiations seem to have been reached: Neither the Taliban nor the United States has demonstrated the ability to conclusively defeat the enemy on the battlefield, and neither has been able to provide Afghans across the country with honest, effective government.

On the ground, American and Afghan combat units have made some advances, but in many districts insurgents remain dangerously active. Official Afghan corruption is pandemic, and efforts to jump-start local economies and governments are lagging.

After a decade of fighting, 50 percent of Afghanistan’s key population centers are “reasonably safe,’’ Gen. David Petraeus, the top coalition commander, said last month. But two of those “reasonably safe’’ cities -- Mazar-e Sharif and Kunduz, both in the north -- recently erupted in lethal violence.

Veteran diplomats and some senior military officers concede the war is a “stalemate.’’

If the stalemate continues, and if past trends hold, this year’s combat could result in more than 750 American troops killed and over 12,000 wounded. In the first 60 days of this year, the number of American wounded increased 20 percent over the same period a year ago. The war has already taken the lives of 2,402 U.S. and allied troops. More than 10,000 Americans have come home wounded, many of whom will require lifetime care. Almost 9,000 Afghan civilians have been killed in the past four years alone.

In the U.S., what has become known to some as “President Obama’s War” is increasingly unpopular. Even some conservative Republicans, perhaps spurred by the $5 billion per month cost of the war, are turning against it.

U.S., Taliban Not Ready For Afghanistan Peace Talks

 

[ekrem]

Afghan Taliban to Open Office in Turkey | Asia | English

The Turkish foreign minister has confirmed that preparations are underway for opening an office in Turkey for the Afghan Taliban. During a recent visit to Turkey, the president of Pakistan, together with his Turkish counterpart, made a commitment to support political initiatives to end the war in Afghanistan. Ankara has been calling for talks with the Taliban, and having strong ties with both Afghanistan and Pakistan is seen as a key element in facilitating talks.

 

[Sunni Man]

The Afghan people have been fighting invaders and occupiers for many centuries.

America is just the current one on a long list.

Someday we will pack up and go home like everyone else eventually did.

Afghanistan is known historically as the grave yard of empires for good reason.

 

[High_Gravity]

The Afghan people have been fighting invaders and occupiers for many centuries.

America is just the current one on a long list.

Someday we will pack up and go home like everyone else eventually did.

Afghanistan is known historically as the grave yard of empires for good reason.

Afghanistan is just a graveyard at this point.

 

[ekrem]

The Afghan people have been fighting invaders and occupiers for many centuries.

Not all are invaders. Some countries have promised open-ended commitment to the development of Afghanistan.
Unlike the Cowboys who just shoot around.

It's video produced by NATO-channel
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dVBISDyCXk]YouTube - Turkey renew commitment[/ame]

 

[waltky]

Granny says is okay, we can blow their leaders' butts away too...

After bin Laden: Why the Taliban won't sever ties with Al Qaeda
May 5, 2011 - Maintaining official ties with Al Qaeda provides the Taliban with important credibility among international jihadist groups, as well as access to military training and Arab funding.

Over the past several days, there has been much speculation among pundits that the killing of Osama bin Laden could provide an opportunity for the Taliban to join peace talks. The close personal relationship between Mr. bin Laden and the Taliban’s leader Mullah Mohammed Omar was seen as one of the central reasons for the group’s continuing support of Al Qaeda. Now that bin Laden is dead, some commentators speculate that the Taliban may be willing to renounce Al Qaeda, a key condition for peace talks. But even without bin Laden, that remains highly unlikely. Maintaining official ties with Al Qaeda provides the Taliban with important credibility among jihadist groups in addition to access to training and Arab funding.

“If the Taliban stays with Al Qaeda there are a lot of incentives,” says Sami Yousafzai, an independent analyst in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. “If they say 'OK, we’re not going to support Al Qaeda,' that might have an impact on their financial sources from the Middle East.” During the past few years, many Arabs opposed to the West have come to see Afghans, especially Pashtuns as like-minded allies. “The Taliban are very much concerned about the general public opinion,” says Hamid Mir, a Pakistani journalist and independent analyst. “Some of them say that ‘We cannot give an impression to the Afghan or Pashtun masses that we are making any deals with the United States or that we are under pressure.’ They are sure that in three or four years they will defeat the United States.”

Still, the relationship with Al Qaeda has become much more symbolic than it is practical. The two groups share few ideological ties and have maintained little contact since the start of the war with NATO. Most estimates say that there are presently less than 100 Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan who are reportedly dependent on the Taliban for their survival.

On the eve of the American-led invasion of Afghanistan, there was some internal debate about whether the Taliban should turn over bin Laden to avoid war with NATO. Almost 10 years later, there is still some resentment within the Taliban that the reason they lost control of Afghanistan was because of bin Laden. “Those who asked Mullah Omar to handover bin Laden and save the Islamic Emirate in 2001 will probably ask Mullah Omar again to break ties with Al Qaeda," says Mohammed Hashim Watanwal, a member of parliament from Uruzgan Province. "If he doesn’t, maybe they will quit the movement and sit down for talks with the government.” Aside from such speculation, however, there are few concrete indications that the Taliban is ready to turn its back on Al Qaeda.

Source

 

[BaIloch]

I would say Neither Taliban nor the people of Afghanistan are ready for Afghan peace talks because they will not bear the interference of Americans in their country . They have decided to fight with US forces untill they will leave Afghanistan .

 

[High_Gravity]

I would say Neither Taliban nor the people of Afghanistan are ready for Afghan peace talks because they will not bear the interference of Americans in their country . They have decided to fight with US forces untill they will leave Afghanistan .

Bullshit, even if the US Forces left tomorrow the Afghans will still fight amongst themselves, don't sit here and try to say everything in Afghanistan will be peaches and cream once US Forces leave.