I think like Iraq we should make Taliban membership a bar to serving in government, it may take us longer to rebuild, but I feel the foundation will be more solid.
What part of DoS? Or was she "State" ;) I did mention the OGAs specifically btw. -----Original Message----- From: Judah McAuley [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, March 09, 2009 2:19 AM To: cf-community Subject: Re: is this true - Obama hinting at negotiating with the Taliban? The "she" in question was a State Department employee, so certainly not a normal civilian. She lived in a hooch and fell asleep in a blackhawk in full body armor. And hell yes, conditions are horrible in Afghanistan. Even in the liberated cities. Especially for women. I never said otherwise. But that does not mean that there are not moderate elements which is what Michael said and what I took umbrage at. We need to establish internal security in Afghanistan through its armed forces and central government. And that will involve (near term at the very least) substantial cooperation from far flung tribes that have elements that currently support the Taliban or have in the past. These groups need a reason to support the central government and to build a local power base off of something other than opium and beating women to death. Those are the moderates and I hope that they will follow through and grow more tolerant over time. But it is not a quick easy thing. I've got no great illusions there about how rapid change will come. There are some impressive gains but it is not clear that they will be held. What I decry is that the notion that there are no moderate elements and things are just what they are and won't change. That thinking is defeatist and useful. We have opportunities and we need to take the best advantage of them that we can. Denying that there might be moderate elements of the Taliban is far from useful. Judah ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:291056 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
