There may be a dim, but brightening, beacon, at the end of the Afghan tunnel. At least that's what the UN's emissary to Afghan conflict, Staffan de Mistura, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Afghanistan, conveyed to a group at a private meeting held by the International Peace Institute, an independent think-tank in New York City, last Thursday September 30th. Mr. De Mistura, a distinguished 38 year career official of the organization who is in his seventh month in Kabul, said that, while the Taliban have never admitted it, he believes they have concluded that they cannot win the war militarily. This may be a self-serving message for a UN official to transmit, but De Mistura, a dual citizen of Italy and Sweden, is considered one of the UN's star diplomats and would not necessarily wish to place the organization in the position of claiming progress if they was none.
De Mistura feels that the Taliban have realized that they can no longer take over Afghanistan again because they are so disliked by the Afghan people as a result of their catastrophic half-decade in power that saw minimal progress, the persecution of women, the general repression of the citizenry, and a deadly alliance with Al Qaeda. Many Taliban, he says, have bitterly learned their lessons from their behavior and have changed, even to the point of distancing themselves from Bin Laden and his vicious warriors. In addition, he argues, in any case, there are now four or five different Taliban factions - nationalists, Afghan Taliban, Pakistani Taliban, and outsider groups, which further splinters the movement. Also neighboring countries who fear the Taliban will make sure at all costs that the insurgents do not retake control of the country. Finally there are foreign troops from some 47 countries in Afghanistan, making a takeover at the moment a virtual impossibility. De Mistura thinks that, by July 2011, the date set by President Obama for the beginning of US withdrawal, the reconciliation process will have been completed, leading to a peace settlement. Those dealings will assure the Taliban's agreement to the Afghan constitution, the laying down of arms, and its recognition of the rights of women. The first step, he notes, is already being taken by the Afghans through the Karzai government's High Peace Council that is reaching out for talks with the Taliban; in time, there will also be discussions with regional powers; and a final resolution will be reached under a global umbrella. The next ten months, he says, will be rough as both sides jockey for the strongest position. But this is the "make it or break it" time for the war to end.
I see an end to this war even sooner. All that has to happen is Pakistan keeps that border crossing closed. No, food, water, fuel, weapons (like tanks) can get through right now, if that stays that way, America will have no choice but to leave. Then the next war can begin. The civil war. And then the next one, and the ne...............
General Mullen issued a serious advisory of the high rate of suicides in the American forces. Why is that?
NATO and the Americans are not winning the war and they are killing mainly women and children, their high tech military madness is destroying villages, leveling them and killing their people.
How can the Americans gain support in Afghanistan by killing the innocent women and children, I still feel in my heart and those in Muslim lands concur that these shelling and drone attacks are really meant for the innocent women and children.
Now, you are seeing the same thing done too in Pakistan, the west reports many Taliban dead from a drone attack, but Press TV, Al Jazeera have ready access, why, because they are Muslim reporters and they go to the source and film burned bodies of women and children that CNN reports are Taliban fighters.
The hatred is growing for the Americans, coupled with the actions of the government and many American non Muslims who are terrorizing American Muslims, this is adding up.
It is not enough anymore to tell are young Muslims not to join these insurgents, when they are in their homes being questioned, discriminate against in the west, they view reports of American invasions and the killing of innocent Muslims; insurgencies will continue
“There are two kinds of change, planned change and catastrophic change and when you neglect to do the first you are left to suffer the latter”. It seems pretty clear that in America today change is virtually off the table, ain’t gonna happen, no how no way, never ever as long as the moneyed interests are in charge and see change as detrimental to their bottom lines.
So we are destined to eventually face catastrophic change when all the plans that we should have had and didn’t don’t lead to solutions to our many problems and the tsunami of our lack of foresight finally catches us napping comfortably on the sofa of willful self deception. A classic example of the blind leading the blind into that ditch we hear so much about.
an imperialist nation cannot take over the second most corrupt nation on earth and make it a democracy. no amout of money can do that. sorry. we cant buy our way out of this one.
we have lost our republic to corp fascism but we are going to fix them. insanity!
this nation did not learn its lessons from nam so we get another opportunity.
those opportunities just keep coming.
it is called karma.
the downside, we will suffer greatly until we learn.
two ways to learn: wisdom of others and suffering .
most of the world chooses suffering.
the worst is yet to come.
enjoy the moment it will not get any better in our lifetimes.
yes the politicans will tell you a different story. they lie.
please dont be upset that our politicans will lie to you. :-)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101001/ap_on_re_us/us_afghan_probe_photographs
Thus when NATO forces pull out, Afghanistan will return to another 20 years of civil war to the added suffering of its already poor traumatized civilian population.
Afghanistan is a nation where Tribal loyalties and Tribal culture trump democratic values. It was very presumptuous for us to think that thousand-year old traditions will vanish overnight just for Western Values. The values of enlightenment had to come from within the West, and even here took 300 years to manifest and ripen.
The Western way will leave with the Western troops. The Afghan people do not know or understand what we tried (and failed) to impose upon them. The British learned that 150 years ago http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_influence_in_Afghanistan and now the lesson is being learned again.
And the women come out to cut up what remains
Just roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
And go to yer Gawd like a soldier!"
-From "The Young Britis Soldier" by Rudyard Kipling
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101001/ap_on_re_us/us_afghan_probe_photographs
The people of Afghanistans' emnity toward the Taliban is nothing compared to their loathing of the U.S. presence in their country.
Many people have a distant memory of the peace with honor that ended the Vietnam conflict. It showed the true color of America and the films of the exit rank heavy on the list of amazing failures. It seems to many that our interest is commercial under the guise of freedom just as Vietnam. And once again the American people are really left in the dark while some cabal dictates at carte blanche of the taxpayer what the world is to look like. Maybe we could just send in some christian missionaries to bid for souls and let the supreme one take care of the direction of humanity.