Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
| Subscribe to Newser's RSS feeds RSS | Follow Newser on Twitter Twitter


1

US, Brits Press Plans for Taliban Talks

Share

(Newser) – British commanders backed by US officials aim to use the success of recent offensives to persuade mid-level Taliban leaders to come in for talks and give up the fight, the Guardian reports. Conditions are right for the "second-tier" leaders who control large numbers of fighters in southern Afghanistan to reconnect with the Afghan government, say commanders. The plan has even launched talk in London and Washington of an exit strategy.

"The Afghan government needs effective grassroots initiatives to offer an alternative for the foot soldiers of the insurgency,” Britain's foreign secretary told NATO members yesterday. "This means a clear route for former insurgents to return to their villages and go back to farming the land—or a role for some of them within the legitimate Afghan security forces.”

An Afghan soldier watches the street from a window ledge following suicide attacks in Gardez, the provincial capital of Paktiya province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, last week.
An Afghan soldier watches the street from a window ledge following suicide attacks in Gardez, the provincial capital of Paktiya province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, last week.   (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband gestures while speaking during a media conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels yesterday.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband gestures while speaking during a media conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels yesterday.   (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Local Afghans help British soldiers to repair the track of a Warrior armored vehicle during Operation Panther's Claw in Afghanistan's Helmand Province earlier this month.
Local Afghans help British soldiers to repair the track of a Warrior armored vehicle during Operation Panther's Claw in Afghanistan's Helmand Province earlier this month.   (AP Photo/Sgt. Dan Harmer, Ministry of Defence, ho)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
OFF THE GRID
11.24.09
Murdoch and Microsoft: The Mice Are Trying to Roar
11.23.09
Books Are Bad for You
1 comment
VIEWING:
 
kokuaguy
Jul 28, 09 1:13 PM CDT
I can't believe that I'm the first to comment after all these hours. Where are those nasty trolls when we need them? What, no evidence here of secret Muslim Obama cravenly selling out the Bush insalled Karzai regime to Bin Ladin? No Fasco-Liberals lurking in the shadows? O.K. I'll play Charlie Brown. It looks to me like there is a fairly sensible strategy here that the military experts would have employed years ago if the Bush/Cheney Neo-crowd had not become obscessed with the ill-conceived, poorly executed debacle in Iraq. Reply
Vote up! Vote down!
0
LEAVE A
COMMENT Comment Policy
Facebook ConnectPost this comment to Facebook?

After connecting you will have the option to post your comment on your Facebook profile.

 

Related Newser Stories

502 Stories

 US Seeks 10K Allied 
 Troops in Afghanistan 

Grumbling nations only want to provide half

1 hour, 57 minutes ago
(Newser) - The US is struggling to convince its allies to commit 10,000 more troops to the war in Afghanistan, according to federal sources. Allied leaders are willing to provide only half that figure for an operation increasingly unpopular with their citizens, particularly amid concerns about corruption in the Afghan government.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Afghanistan • NATO • Germany • France • US military • Netherlands • British troops • Britain • Afghanistan war • President Obama • allied troops • war in Afghanistan

Analysis

 Obama Is the Anti-Cowboy 

Slow decision on Afghanistan a contrast from Bush's gut checks

Nov 25, 09 9:26 AM CST
(Newser) - Barack Obama’s prolonged Afghanistan strategy review has if nothing else distinguished him from his predecessor—Obama is anything but the “gut player” Dubya claimed to be. In fact, he’s put on “a spectacle of deliberation unlike anything seen in the White House in recent memory,”... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Afghanistan • Barack Obama • Afghanistan war • strategy • President Obama • Afghanistan exit strategy

Fresh Troops to Target Afghanistan's Troubled South

Kandahar key in coming Afghan surge

Nov 25, 09 7:54 AM CST
(Newser) - Though President Obama has yet to announce his plan for finishing the job in Afghanistan, military commanders say the bulk of the fresh troops—regardless of their number—will be sent to the country's volatile south to reverse Taliban gains, specifically targeting the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. The coming surge... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Afghanistan • Taliban • Kandahar • Helmand province • Afghanistan war • Afghanistan exit strategy

502 Stories


Politics  •  US  •  World 
TwitterFollow @NewserPolitics on Twitter

 
Afghanistan • NATO • Taliban • insurgents • David Miliband • Afghanistan war • Afghanistan exit strategy

from our news partners