Against The Delusion of 'Talking With The Taliban'
"What can be the purpose of talks with the Taliban? These men deprive
women of their rights, throw acid in the faces of schoolgirls, reject
religious freedom and oppose constitutional democracy. They also
threaten to kill any Afghans who have worked with Western militaries
and nongovernmental groups or had other contact with foreigners.
"Is
it possible, as some have said, that the Taliban have mellowed since
being toppled in 2001? Muhammad Ibrahim Hanafi, a top Taliban
commander, answered that question in an interview in March with CNN:'Our law is still the same old law which was in place during our rule
in Afghanistan.'
"The more President Karzai and his Western allies talk about reconciliation, the farther their public support will plummet."
Hassina Sherjan is the director of Aid Afghanistan for Education. Her analysis of the delusion of a negotiated compromise with the Taliban is essential reading, here in the New York Times.
Against the Scholars.
It is what Hanafi and the other mullahs say, along with their track record and their professed goals, that makes me a permanent and implacable anti-jihadist. The Talibs announce what they'll do (butcher innocents, raze schools, annihilate modernity); then they do it; and then they do it, again and again. And they will continue to do it until they either achieve their blood-soaked theocracy, or are destroyed.
It seems to me that no one would consider "negotiating" with the Students who has actually listened to them. And that anyone who thinks that peace in Afghanistan is achievable through "dialogue" or "compromise" with such priestly fanatics really cannot be paying attention.
These are the men whose imamocracy was crushed in 2001, mostly by their fellow citizens; these are the guys whose Allah-centric Pashto-supremacism has been repudiated again and again by free Afghans, in free polls; these are the scorpions who will poison Afghan society again and again, without they are stepped on.
There is not *one* item in the Taliban agenda that is acceptable in a free society -- not temporarily, nor to buy peace in some diluted fashion; not in Helmand, not on Tuesdays; not in Kabul and not in the Swat; not in the mosques, and not in the markets. What's to negotiate? Free society itself?
Maybe Karzai knows better, I dunno: it is in fact his country, at least till his liberated citizens vote him out. My view, you can't actually placate nihilists; you can't even buy 'em off, as they will most assuredly not stay bought. Our duty is grim but clear.
L.