Taliban leaders in 2001: Have they learned the lesson of 2001? …

 

 

Libération, France

The Taliban Have Learned the Lesson of 2001… It's Time to Talk

 

"The Taliban have learned from the defeat they suffered in 2001 … They now realize that they will achieve nothing if they persist with their cocktail of jihad and Sharia; they have become less fanatical, more political, and we could in a word, seek compromise with them. … This is where the French reinforcements could play not only a military role, but a political one as well. They could permit the assertion of a Franco-British pole in Afghanistan, which would be so significant that it could encourage George Bush's successor to endorse this strategy. "

 

By Bernard Guetta*

                                 

 

Translated By Sandrine Ageorges

 

April 1, 2008

 

France - Liberation - Original Article (France)

Attention! Everything seems to plead - naturally - against sending more French troops to Afghanistan. But the Atlanticism of Nicolas Sarkozy is so compulsive, his foreign policy so confused, this war in particular - so close to being completely lost - that we have no choice but to conclude that to do so is merely an intolerable, dangerous, positive gesture toward George Bush. As it is, this decision is nothing but troubling, but beware! Contrary to the Iraqi adventure, the Afghan intervention was approved by the United Nations. It's legal. It is, above all, legitimate, since the Taliban not only protected the organizers of the September 11 attacks, but seven years later, their victory would become a tragedy for this country and would complete the destabilization of neighboring Pakistan. Even worse, it would strengthen the networks of Jihadists giving them a territorial sanctuary and more importantly, nourish their myth about the inevitable defeat of the “crusaders” before the rising masses of Islam.

 

Nicolas Sarkozy is not wrong to consider that the battle for Afghanistan is a "key issue." He is right to say that we cannot accept a “return of the Taliban and al-Qaeda to Kabul." It is little more than stating the obvious to say that a thousand additional French soldiers may well make a difference. They could weigh in during a battle that it would be better not to lose. And other U.N. countries are set to increase their troop levels as well - 3500 men from the United-States alone. But military force is not as significant as one might think.

 

It is insufficient if it is doesn't fit in neatly as part of a political strategy. But the fact is that the arrival of American reinforcements in Iraq did contribute to a reduction in the violence and just as it wasn't the valor of the Afghan Mujahidin that permitted them to defeat the Red Army, but rather Saudi money, American weapons and ground bases made available to them in Pakistan.

 

The Taliban have now regained control of the southern half of the country. They achieved this thanks to the mistakes of the Americans, who, instead of pouring in money so desperately needed by the Afghans after twenty years of war, were content to track the men of al-Qaeda, bombing at will and killing so many innocents that they became hated. As has been said by Olivier Roy , one of the leading specialist on the region, the Americans have conducted an “ideological war,” while Afghans have been waiting for roads, schools and hospitals. Thus the Taliban have found support. But is this mess irretrievable?

 

The British don't think so. Without hiding their pessimism, they believe that the Taliban have learned from the defeat they suffered in 2001. The Taliban now realize that they will achieve nothing if they persist with their cocktail of jihad and Sharia [Muslim Law]; they have become less fanatical, more political, and we could in a word, seek compromise with them. This is what the British secret services tried to initiate last autumn. Their relationship with the Afghan president has been severely damaged, but the British have not abandoned their ambition to stand back from the fire, using a minimum of military power in an attempt to separate the Taliban from al-Qaeda and create the basis for a government of reconstruction in which the Pashtuns - the largest ethnic group in the country - would be represented.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

This is where the French reinforcements could play not only a military role, but a political one as well. They could permit the assertion of a Franco-British pole in Afghanistan, which would be so significant that it could encourage George Bush's successor to endorse this strategy. This would be all the more desirable considering that on Saturday, the first gesture of the new Pakistani government was to offer to integrate their own Taliban into the political arena in exchange for a renunciation of violence.

 

There is a wisdom emerging in the region that France could nurture, but the astonishing thing is that Nicolas Sarkozy doesn't impose any real conditions on the Americans, either for the much-needed French reinforcements or the reintegration of France into NATO. 

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

He could benefit from his rapprochement with the United-States and take advantage of the sympathy that he has achieved there to make a difference, both in Afghanistan and on European defense. He must simply act like less of an Atlanticist. Deploying these troops would then fit into a design and cause less of a disturbance. But instead he is content. For him, this is what it is, to love America.

 

Bernard Guetta is a member of the Libération board of trustees.

 

CLICK HERE FOR FRENCH VERSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US April 2, 7:11am]