Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Afghanistan war end-game includes truce with the Taliban

Canine · 02-09-2010, 06:29 PM

something that doesn't come out a lot is that we are actually fighting two broad categories of people in Afghanistan. One group, the Taliban proper, have become somewhat more organized and are actually adopting slightly more moderate views than before. We could make peace with them and the Taliban would stop fighting and start integrating into the government. Sounds peachy.
But what the news doesn't mention (or at least fails to distinguish) is the second category - Local insurgents. These people come from every village in the country and fight the same war as the Taliban, use the same weapons and tactics, and dress in the same clothes. But they don't work together on any large scale, have no chain of command to tell them to stop, and they aren't motivated by ideology like the Taliban. Some insurgents may lay down their weapons at a truce with the Taliban, but many more will not. They will continue fighting until all foreign forces are out of the country. But the harder they fight us to force us out, the more difficult it will be for us to actually be able to pull out, because we won't leave until there is peace and stability. Every bomb in the road and every gunshot takes away from that peace. We have to make peace with -everyone-, not just the Taliban. The local farmers with AK-47s and an RPG won't be attending any international peace conferences.

02-09-2010, 06:29 PM	#10 (permalink)
Canine Upright Location: Fort Bragg, NC / Kandahar Province, Afghanistan	something that doesn't come out a lot is that we are actually fighting two broad categories of people in Afghanistan. One group, the Taliban proper, have become somewhat more organized and are actually adopting slightly more moderate views than before. We could make peace with them and the Taliban would stop fighting and start integrating into the government. Sounds peachy. But what the news doesn't mention (or at least fails to distinguish) is the second category - Local insurgents. These people come from every village in the country and fight the same war as the Taliban, use the same weapons and tactics, and dress in the same clothes. But they don't work together on any large scale, have no chain of command to tell them to stop, and they aren't motivated by ideology like the Taliban. Some insurgents may lay down their weapons at a truce with the Taliban, but many more will not. They will continue fighting until all foreign forces are out of the country. But the harder they fight us to force us out, the more difficult it will be for us to actually be able to pull out, because we won't leave until there is peace and stability. Every bomb in the road and every gunshot takes away from that peace. We have to make peace with -everyone-, not just the Taliban. The local farmers with AK-47s and an RPG won't be attending any international peace conferences. __________________ Awesome sig coming to a post near you! If you say plz because its shorter than please, then I'll say no because its shorter than yes.