Peace talks with Taliban in Afghanistan have begun, US confirms.

Peace talks with Taliban in Afghanistan have begun, US confirms.

www.thenational.ae

KABUL // The United States has initiated peace talks with the Taliban, the US secretary of defence confirmed on Sunday in comments that have launched concerns in Afghanistan over how the Islamists' return could affect the war-ravaged country.

"We have said all along that a political outcome is the way most of the wars end," Robert Gates said. It was the first time an American official has publicly admitted the US government is reaching out to Taliban figures in efforts to end the now 10-ye.....

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War On Terrorism

I hope though that we should get out but what i remember correctly that Taliban and Al-Qaeda don't make any peace. I guess they want to go back trying to take Afghanistan and plan to blow up some more towers around the world.

Either you end it by bombing the crap out of the country or just leave altogether. I remember we went into Afghanistan to get Bin Laden which we did.

Right now Obama decided to announce new Afghan war plans now.
www.cbsnews.com...

www.thenational.ae
(visit the link for the full news article)

Militant Islamists won't make peace, they can't, they follow the word of the quran. They can also lie to the un believer.

Waste of time trying to make peace with these people.

Impossible the Us will keep staying until they are either kicked out or have total control of the country

Strange I thought the the US was talking to the Taliban since the 80's

In the early 1980s, the CIA and the ISI (Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency) provided arms and money, and the ISI helped gather radical Muslims from around the world to fight against the Soviet invaders.[189] Osama Bin Laden was one of the key players in organizing training camps for the foreign Muslim volunteers. "By 1987, 65,000 tons of U.S.-made weapons and ammunition a year were entering the war."
Source

Osama training camps Pakistan... you dont say.

reply to post by BarmyBilly


Then what shall we do then? If we nuke Afghanistan, they will be an uproar from the international community. Someway we have to get out of Afghanistan because it cost us billions already.

Having NATO troops staying in Afghanistan, wasting lives, and it will cost more money which it has now. Not to mention how many Afghan civilians were killed by NATO forces already on this so-called war on terror.

reply to post by BarmyBilly


The Quran says:

Fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but do not transgress limits. God does not love transgressors. (2:190)

"If they seek peace, then seek you peace. And trust in God for He is the One that heareth and knoweth all things. (8:61) "

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We should have been negotiating with the Taliban from the day one (in hindsight we shouldn't have even went to Afghanistan), the war in Afghanistan is largely pointless. Just like Britain did with the IRA, negotiation is an instrumental part of any modern conflict, otherwise we get stuck with stalemates like we see in Afghanistan.

Who can honestly rationalise that launching wars of aggression in foreign nations are in the interest of our national defence? If anything it's a justification of the rhetoric that supports the actions of groups like the Taliban (Bin Laden himself cited ex CIA agent Michael Scheuer who blames western foreign policy for the rise of terrorism and terrorist sympathy).

It's our governments who are responsible for the murder of hundreds of thousands of people in these wars and it's innocent people who are cannon fodder in this 'war on terror'. Exacerbating the religious connotations of these conflicts don't do anything except inflame tensions.

Peace talks with a terrorist organization?
Is the U.S. expecting compromise?

reply to post by lifeissacred


If the Muslim world would only consist of the verses of peace in the Quran, it wouldn't be much of a problem.

But you folks seem to forget (passively or actively) that there are other verses going around, preaching hate in the verses of The Sword.

9:29: “Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Messenger have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.”

Link

While we're at it, we should invite the ruling Ayatollah of Iran to the white house for a state dinner, and peace talks with the prez... and issue a press conf, where they can jointly tell the world that Israel is the greatest enemy to global peace.

reply to post by Grey Magic



Authentic hadith about Surah 9 (which tells the story of the battle of Badr) state that it's revelation is related to the battle of Badr. The only references of explicit violence in the Quran are in relation to the wars the Muslims faced after they were driven out of Mecca (Badr being the first and one of the largest). These are all subject to the verses before where it states that they are not allowed to be aggressive (i.e. start a war) and that they are bound by Islam to seek peace as soon as their enemy does.

Narrated Said bin Jubair I asked Ibn 'Abbas regarding Surat-al-Anfal. He said, "It was revealed in connection with the Battle of Badr."

reply to post by lifeissacred


I agree, but you can't deny that there are Imams explaining it in the wrong context and by doing so indoctrinating people into religious extremism.

reply to post by Grey Magic


Of course, I've no doubt that it happens and that it is used to further the political/religious aspirations of certain groups. However there is a large misconception that the violence stems directly from the teachings of the religion. Whilst religious texts are used to justify some modern violence perpetrated in the name of the religion, to say that the actions of these individuals accurately reflect their faith is fundamentally incorrect since in most cases they rely upon missinformation or missinterpretation in order to justify their actions.

reply to post by -W1LL


I noticed how you left this part out of your quote....

Allegations of connection to CIA.......

And conveniently overlooked this part of known history.
Remember, I'm not making this up. It's from your source!

In addition, Saudi Arabia and Iran – as competitors for regional hegemony – supported Afghan militias hostile towards each other. According to Human Rights Watch, Iran assisted the Shia Hazara Hezb-i Wahdat forces of Abdul Ali Mazari, as Iran attempted to maximize Wahdat's military power and influence. Saudi Arabia supported the Wahhabite Abdul Rasul Sayyaf and his Ittihad-i Islami faction. Conflict between the two militias soon escalated into a full-scale war. A publication by the George Washington University describes:

Outside forces saw instability in Afghanistan as an opportunity to press their own security and political agendas.


Meanwhile southern Afghanistan was neither under the control of foreign-backed militias nor the government in Kabul, but was ruled by local leaders such as Gul Agha Sherzai and their militias. In 1991, the Taliban (a movement originating from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-run religious schools for Afghan refugees in Pakistan) also developed in Afghanistan as a politico-religious force

Your dates are all wrong....

Soviet Afghan war

In 1988, the governments of Pakistan and Afghanistan, with the United States and Soviet Union serving as guarantors, signed an agreement settling the major differences between them, known as the Geneva accords.

The US/West supported the Mujaheddin not the Taliban. When the Soviets quit the US/Western aid dropped off. Which I'll admit did help foster the environment in which the Taliban spawned from following the Afghan Civil War (1989-1992) Then later the "Taliban appear in 1994" not in 1987

We should've never been there in the first place...I'm really hoping Ron Paul wins...We will get to experience America like it was in the beginning but with cooler technology...Should be a blast IMO

Originally posted by BarmyBilly
Militant Islamists won't make peace, they can't, they follow the word of the quran. They can also lie to the un believer.

Waste of time trying to make peace with these people.

I am not an islamist, but I would say the same about you, and whatever strain of people you associate yourself with. Waste of time trying to make peace with someone who thinks its a waste of time trying to make peace.

I find this whole subject highly amusing. Quiet, tempered, but never overt admission on the part of the United States that they simply cannot "win" this war in the traditional sense. The taliban shall never be annihilated or truly ousted from the political scene. America's wallet is slimmer than ever before.
I am all for "reconciliation"--it's a nice sounding, lofty term--and peace by the least bloody route. There are just some very...amusing undertones to the whole "our resolve shall not waver in our fight against the taliban" line of argument.

reply to post by NephlimKilla


It's better if Al-Qaeda hasn't ordered the planes to fly into our towers with 1000 of lives lost, would you sit there, do nothing and let them blow around the world? In fact, i think the war in Afghanistan did tried to keep more Al-Qaedas out. However since this war is raging on, we should leave. But don't worry we soon to expected another attack by Al-Qaeda.

reply to post by SLAYER69


and you left out everything after your quote .... they said allegations then they listed facts.

I said 80's thts one date and it was quoted in the same paragraph not sure what your point is but seemed like a waste of time to post.

Originally posted by -W1LL
I said 80's thts one date and it was quoted in the same paragraph not sure what your point is but seemed like a waste of time to post.

Your words....

Originally posted by -W1LL
Strange I thought the the US was talking to the Taliban since the 80's

They weren't even around until around 1991 or 92 then officially in 1994 so how could they have been talking to them back in the 80s?

Linky here...

The Taliban, the former rulers of Afghanistan, arose from the religious schools set up during the mujahideen's war against the Soviet invasion. After the Soviet army withdrew in 1989, fighting erupted among mujahideen factions. In response to the chaos, the fundamentalist Taliban was formed and within two years it captured most of the country. The Taliban gave bin Laden sanctuary in 1996.

In 1990, in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Saudi government allowed American troops to be stationed in Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden was incensed that non-believers (American soldiers) were stationed in the birthplace of Islam. He also charged the Saudi regime with deviating from true Islam.

Bin Laden was expelled from Saudi Arabia in 1991 because of his anti-government activities. He eventually wound up in Sudan, where he worked with Egyptian radical groups in exile.

Anti-U.S. Attacks

In 1992 bin Laden claimed responsibility for attempting to bomb U.S. soldiers in Yemen and for attacking U.S. troops in Somalia the following year. In 1994 pressure from the U.S. and Saudi Arabia prompted Sudan to expel bin Laden, and he returned to Afghanistan.

In 1998 bin Laden called for all Americans and Jews, including children, to be killed. He has since been accused of increasing his terrorist activities, such as the 1998 bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The date, Aug. 7, was the anniversary of the deployment of U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia.

U.S. cruise missile attacks against targets in the Sudan and Afghanistan in Aug. 1998 are not believed to have seriously hampered bin Laden's network. Bin Laden continues to call for the destruction of the U.S.......

The rest is history

reply to post by SLAYER69


The Taliban was formed in 1994 by Pakistan ISI intelligence. In fact, Mujadhideen and Taliban are different groups, not the same. Some fought with them and some joined the Taliban but most who joined the Taliban are mostly Pakistani. Have you guys ever heard of Ahmed Shah Massoud? He was one of the people that fought against the Soviets in the 80s and he opposed the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in the 90s when he fought against Bin Laden. Two days before 9/11, he was killed in the explosion by a suicide bombers.

Also Bin Laden ordered 1998 Kenya bombing that killed over 224 people as well as the bombing of USS Cole in 2000 that killed 17 American sailors.