The Deep Insight

It was reported yesterday that the Afghan leader Hamid Karzai has tried to enlist the help of Saudi Arabia in its efforts to end the 7 year insurgency by the resilient Taliban.  For the last two years, apparently the Saudi government has ignored pleas from the embattled Afghan leader. That’s not surprising, Afghanistan has been the can that has been kicked around for the last 20 + years.  No one really wants to gets their hands dirty or admit to the chaos that help foment over the years.  That’s besides the point.  The question is, is it a good idea to talk with the Taliban?

The Taliban has been fighting to regain control of Afghanistan for the last 7 years and have been battled to a stalemate against Coalition and Afghan forces.  The Taliban will keep fighting as long as they believe that they don’t have a political say in Afghanistan.  Insurgencies take a looong time to defeat. Is the U.S and other Coalition forces willing to stay in Afghanistan for 10-15 years on top of the seven that have been completed? My guess is no because some of the Coalition allies want to leave Afghanistan already. For example, in Canada the government has pledged to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan in 2009. So if there is going to be dwindling Coalition forces over the next few years, it is probably wise to come up with a political resolution to the Taliban problem.

So with the premise that, U.S. and Coalition forces are not going to stay, what is the best viable option to win in Afghanistan?  The best bet might be to establish peace between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan for one has to be convinced that giving aid to the Taliban is not in their best interest.  The Pakistani’s wants to retain the Taliban so they can be used against India in case of war.  By creating peace between the two advasaries and resolving the Kashmir situation, the Taliban would become irrelevant.  The Pakistani’s then could cut their ties with theTaliban and reduce the movement to nothing. With economic and education aid to the border region the Taliban’s influence in the tribal belt will weaken over time.

Since the United States is in the region, they can play a constructive role in facilitating peace between the two countries.  The United States can start to turn things in Afghanistan with the right kind strategic effort.  Hopefully our next leader will have a better understanding of international relations so we can work “smarter not harder” in this effort to defeat global terrorism.

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