Friday, June 25, 2010

A negotiated peace? : Why Afghanistan could end up looking like Lebanon - Daniel Serwer

While President Obama is surging troops into Afghanistan and money into Pakistan, plans are being laid for a negotiated settlement to be reached before the beginning of the American drawdown in July 2011.

So the administration is looking for a decent, negotiated exit. The Pakistani intelligence service would act as a surrogate (and guarantor) for the Taliban, as Slobodan Milosevic did for the Bosnian Serbs 15 years ago. The Americans would deliver Kabul. The deal might leave the Taliban in control of large parts of Afghanistan but keep al-Qaeda in Pakistan, where Islamabad would agree to deal harshly with its fighters

Assuming negotiations start in earnest by fall, it is doubtful that Clinton's red lines can be made to hold in any part of Afghanistan under Taliban control. The only one that seems really to matter to Obama is blocking al-Qaeda's return to Afghanistan. The women of southern Afghanistan already wear burqas. What will be their fate if the United States accepts Taliban control? ...... A negotiated peace? : Why Afghanistan could end up looking like Lebanon

This week's confrontation between a senior... Thomas E. Ricks
The Afghanistan Syndrome - Eliot A. Cohen
Obama stresses no discord with Petraeus on board - washingtonpost

Dust, blood and war: The question of Afghanistan...

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