U.S. Secretary of Defense confirms "outreach" talks with Taliban

This report confirms what Karzai said yesterday while he was also channeling Woodsy Owl and accusing NATO of not giving a hoot.

In recent months, Secretary of State Clinton and others have expressed hope that parts of the Taliban who are open to "dialogue" might be split off from their more outwardly "extreme" brethren. But as always, "war is deceit," and the Taliban can be expected to exploit the opportunity to gain legitimacy, perhaps even emerging at some point as a Hizballah-like "political party" that also happens to function as a state-within-a-state with its own armed forces. (The move toward Taliban "political" offices in Turkey are another step in that direction.) In the short term, they will also use the pretense of dialogue to buy time for their military operations.

"Robert Gates confirms US-Taliban talks in Afghanistan," from BBC News, June 19:

Outgoing US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has confirmed that the US is holding "outreach" talks with members of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Mr Gates said talks were "preliminary" but that a political solution was the way "most of these wars end".

It is the first time the US has acknowledged such contact and comes a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai said peace talks had started.

The US is due to start withdrawing its 97,000 troops from Afghanistan in July.

It aims to gradually hand over all security operations to Afghan security forces by 2014.

"There's been outreach on the part of a number of countries, including the United States," Mr Gates told CNN., without naming other countries involved.

"I would say that these contacts are very preliminary.

"My own view is that real reconciliation talks are not likely to be able to make any substantive headway until at least this winter."

'Time to engage'

Mr Gates, who will leave office at the end of the month, said the first step had been to ensure the contacts were genuine and influential Taliban members.

"We don't want to end up having a conversation at some point with somebody who is basically a freelancer."

Mr Karzai said on Saturday that peace talks involving Afghan officials, the US and other "foreign militaries" were taking place and were "going well"....

« Previous Entry | Home Page | Next Entry »

17 Comments

| Leave a comment

Islamic Empire | June 19, 2011 12:09 PM | Reply

Poor infidels have been trying to rid the world of Islam for 1400 years and can't even beat the Taliban. So embarrassing.

when*pigs*fly | June 19, 2011 12:47 PM | Reply

I am disgusted but not surprised, I'm sure this comes straight from the anointed one, therefore no surprise. There are traitors everywhere.

katharina | June 19, 2011 1:42 PM | Reply

Only under the treacherous Caliph Hussein Oabama, this is possible - forcing the world, especially the Western world to bow like SLAVES to savage Islam and Islamic Nazis like the Talebans! The evil Hussein, the suspected agent and Trojan horse of the Muslim Brotherhood needs to be defeated in 2012. How can Hussein let the Taleban Nazis partly rule Afghanistan legitimately - after all the savage barbarism that they have committed? Imagine the horror to women/girls and non-Muslims - these Talebans are not even native Afghans but originate from Pakistan!

Wellington replied to comment from Islamic Empire | June 19, 2011 3:02 PM | Reply

Ridding the world of Islam is rather like ridding the world of cancer, including easily conquerable cancers, though ones that still come back with a vengeance. It's damn difficult to rid oneself, one's society, the world at large, of a great negative. Such is the way of life.

salah | June 19, 2011 3:05 PM | Reply

Outreach? With Islam nothing will work except FORCE. No outreach, no concessions, no appeasement, no negociations.
Fight and Deserve Victory!
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.com/2010/06/deserve-victory.html

pulsar182 | June 19, 2011 3:26 PM | Reply

"The US is due to start withdrawing its 97,000 troops from Afghanistan in July."

Hopefully they will also stop sending money...They should also ban Muslim Immigration...It doesnt't take a rocket scientist to see that in 1400 years Islam has failed to produce one single peaceful, prosperous country...

exsgtbrown replied to comment from Islamic Empire | June 19, 2011 4:25 PM | Reply

"Poor infidels have been trying to rid the world of Islam for 1400 years and can't even beat the Taliban. So embarrassing."

Hey! your are right!..that is embarrassing...it is time to get rid of those asinine rules of engagement and shuck those chains of political correctness. It is time to turn things around.

AJack | June 19, 2011 6:37 PM | Reply

So, where does this leave us....

10 years of fighting and losing hundreds of American lives - and in the end we'll leave Afghanistan in the hands of the Taliban, Pakistani terrorists, Pakistani army and a new Al Qaeda leadership.

Not that different from where we were in that part of the world in August 2001 - only hundreds of our boys are now dead, billions spent and a Pakistani army that has been taught once again, that "terrorism really does pay".

Poor strategy leads to poor results and we've demonstrated that again, at the cost of the lives of our men and detrimental impact on our economy.

desidude | June 19, 2011 7:01 PM | Reply

a porkie screws the gullible obama.

The US militery was in a high level talks with an important taliban leader. Well, after giving him untold amount of money they eventually found out he was just some low level worker in porkiestan's city of peshwar. believe me the real taliban would not talk with the usa,. why should they? they are winning and they see the desperation in obama.

Alarmed Pig Farmer | June 19, 2011 8:54 PM | Reply

So much for that old saw about how we don't negotiate with terrorists. At least we won't have to listen to that bilge anymore.

Better Bettor replied to comment from katharina | June 19, 2011 9:26 PM | Reply

For a fairly accurate probability of Barack Obama winning the 2012 Presidential Election, look at the odds in the 2012 Presidential Election - Next President market on the world's largest betting exchange Betfair. Take the reciprocal of the average of the inside back and inside lay odds on Barack Obama. Currently the inside back odds are 1.60 and the inside lay odds are 1.64. The average is 1.62. The reciprocal is 1/1.62 or 0.617. Barack Obama's probability of winning is approximately 61.7% and probability of losing is approximately 38.3%. Link Below.

http://sports.betfair.com/Index.do?mi=21311313&ex=1&origin=MRL

Spirit Of 1683 replied to comment from Islamic Empire | June 19, 2011 11:15 PM | Reply

We haven't trried hard, and we can make a start by throwing hate-filled parasites like yourself out of the West. Back to Pakistan you go, mentally-deficient sub-ape.

Spirit Of 1683 replied to comment from pulsar182 | June 19, 2011 11:18 PM | Reply

If we had banned Muslim immigration 50 or 60 years ago, the likes of the bloodsucking Islamic Empire wouldn't here in the West and leeching off us.

vnbushman | June 20, 2011 4:38 AM | Reply

"Mr Gates said talks were "preliminary" but that a political solution was the way "most of these wars end"".

What "political solution" is Gates refering to? And since when have most of these wars ended?

Sometimes I wonder if Washington D.C. knows anything about Islam? Seems to me like the Taliban, al-Qaida, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, the PLO and Hamas have stayed three steps ahead of the free world on nearly every issue. I'm sure Secretary of State Clinton means well. But then so did Ex-President Carter 4 decades ago.

Washington really should do some reading and fact finding with regard to Islam, before it makes another blunder. How many more must die before the United States wakes-up to the truth?

Hello.... Islam doesn't want peace they want a globle "jihad"... They have said so a thousand times... I have never heard the word peace from any Islamic leader.... What part of jihad doesn't Washington D. C. understand?

RonaldB replied to comment from pulsar182 | June 20, 2011 6:17 AM | Reply

"Hopefully they will also stop sending money...They should also ban Muslim Immigration"

I'm with you. We have no vital interest in Afghanistan, so we should not be sending troops or money. More Muslims should not be permitted to immigrate to the United States, or any other country wishing to maintain its indigenous culture and government.

Muslims should be free to immigrate to other Muslim countries, since they are brothers.

deebartok replied to comment from Islamic Empire | June 20, 2011 12:15 PM | Reply

Oh, don´t be so sure, ape-man!

From my viewpoint, us nasty infidels are just getting started.

Again, I say to you, bring it and we will detsroy you!

We may withdraw from our theaters of war, but keep pushing us, and we will, actually, turn your Islamic Hellhole into a nice, glassy parking lot, dipshit...

deebartok replied to comment from deebartok | June 20, 2011 12:17 PM | Reply

¨detsroy¨ should be ¨destroy¨.

NOTE: The Comments section is provided in the interests of free speech only. It is mostly unmoderated, but comments that are off topic, offensive, slanderous, or otherwise annoying stand a chance of being deleted. The fact that any comment remains on the site IN NO WAY constitutes an endorsement by Jihad Watch, or by Robert Spencer or any other Jihad Watch writer, of any view expressed, fact alleged, or link provided in that comment.

FrontPageMag.com

Books by Robert Spencer

The Muslim Brotherhood in America, by Robert Spencer

Islamophobia: Thoughtcrime of the Totalitarian Future

Muslim Persecution of Christians, by Robert Spencer

The Ground Zero Mosque: Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks

“My comrade-in-arms, my pal, my buddy.”
— Oriana Fallaci

“Robert Spencer incarnates intellectual courage when, all over the world, governments, intellectuals, churches, universities and media crawl under a hegemonic Universal Caliphate’s New Order. His achievement in the battle for the survival of free speech and dignity of man will remain as a fundamental monument to the love of, and the self-sacrifice for, liberty.”
— Bat Ye’or

“Robert Spencer is indefatigable. He is keeping up the good fight long after many have already given up. I do not know what we would do without him. I appreciate all the intelligence and courage it takes to keep going despite the appeasement of the West.”
— Ibn Warraq

“America's most informed, fearless, and compelling voice on modern jihadism.”
— Andrew C. McCarthy, Senior Fellow at National Review Institute

“Robert Spencer is the leading voice of scholarship and reason in a world gone mad. If the West is to be saved, we will owe Robert Spencer an incalculable debt.”
— Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs

"The consummate Islam critic and expert." — Bruce Bawer

“Over the years, we have become friends, and I have received his assistance on several pieces of legislation I proposed.”
— Former Congressman Tom Tancredo

“Few people are capable of applying scholarship, analytical reasoning, and objectivity to their topic -- while simultaneously being readable and witty -- as can Robert Spencer.”
— Raymond Ibrahim

“A national treasure...The acclaimed scholar of Islam.”
— Frank Gaffney, Center for Security Policy

“I am indeed honored to call him my friend.”
— Brad Thor, novelist

“A top American analyst of Islam....A serious scholar...I learn from him.”
— Daniel Pipes

“A brilliant scholar and writer.”
— Douglas Murray

"One of my best teachers."
— Ashraf Ramelah, Voice of the Copts

“Thank God there’s at least one man with balls left in the West.”
— Kathy Shaidle, Five Feet of Fury

“I read people like [Mark Steyn] and Bob Spencer and the rest of them, and I say, ‘Boortz, you’re pretending you’re an author. These people really are. They really write some entertaining, some standup stuff.’”
— Neal Boortz

“Robert Spencer is the Stephen King of Jihad.”
— Chris Gaubatz, Muslim Mafia

“Armed with facts and fearlessness, Spencer stands up for Western civilization.”
— Michelle Malkin

“Widely read in conservative foreign policy circles.”
— New York Times

“Widely read in many quarters in Washington.”
— Washington Post

“A canny operative who likely has the inside track on the State Department’s Middle East affairs desk should the tea party win the White House.”
— New York Magazine

“A hero of the American right.”
— Karen Armstrong

"The leading anti-Islamic intellectual in the United States....The go-to Islam expert for the right wing."
— Salon Magazine

“Robert Spencer is an Edward Said turned upside down.”
— Stephen Suleyman Schwartz

“One of the nation's most notorious Islamophobes.”
— Hamas-linked CAIR

"Geller and Spencer are probably the most important propagandizing Islamophobes in the world. These people's voices speak very loudly — not just here in the United States but overseas."
— Heidi Beirach, Southern Poverty Law Center

“Satanic ignoramus.”
— Khaleel Mohammed

“The Likud anti-Christ.”
— Dar al-Hayat newspaper (Saudi Arabia)

“Zionist Crusader, missionary of hate, counter-Islam consultant.”
— Al-Qaeda’s Adam Gadahn, “Azzam the American”