U.S.: Taliban Ready for Reconciliation

[Rose Siding]

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Senior Taliban members have agreed to join a reconciliation process to be announced soon by the Afghan government, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan said Monday.

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said there had been a "positive response" to overtures from American and Afghan officials, which have intensified in recent months.

"Quite a number of people associated with the Taliban have taken advantage of it already and are living in their areas, they've come in and some senior members have also come in," Khalilzad said at a news conference.

He declined to give details about the reconciliation program, but said there would likely be an announcement from the Afghan government in coming days.

Khalilzad and the U.S. military are pressing President Hamid Karzai to reach out to "non-criminal" Taliban, many of whom are believed to have taken refuge in neighboring Pakistan after a U.S. bombing campaign ousted the former militia following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-afghan-taliban-truce,0,6980663.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

[marmar]

1. Can you feel the love?

Maybe they'll be invited back to Texas for another tour of the state.

:grouphug:

[angstlessk]

2. Is Iraq better off with Saddam gone or Afghanistan better off with the

Taliban back in power. Let's see, who was more complicit in the attacks of 9/11? Sometimes I wonder if America is too stupid to know which is which? I mourn for my country and its policies.

[bullimiami]

3. if you cant beat them, pretend that they want to work it out with you.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

14. You've got that one right.

Rule #1 When you're failing pretend you meant for it to come out that way.

Rule #2 When you're caught in a lie pretend you don't know what they are talking about.

Rule #3 When the country's economy begins to crumble around you pretend it's the fault of the last democrat in office.

Rule #4 When people begin to notice all the money you've "borrowed" from SS pretend there's a crisis and it needs reform.

Rule #5 When the rest of the world has turned it's back on you see rule #1.

[MichiganVote]

4. Aw, how sweet. Females in the country will be so reassured.

I'm waiting to hear the line from Bush.."We preach forgiveness.."

[Alpharetta]

5. Will Mullah Omar be taken off the "wanted" list?

Poor Mullah Omar. Always in bin Laden's shadow.

Poor bin Laden. A forgotten terrorist.

They should do a VH1 reunion show. "Whatever happened to...."

[NNN0LHI]

8. Got to get Mullah Omar off his motorbike first n/t

[Rose Siding]

13. omg, remember that?

They had him surrounded before he out-smarted him with the scooter.

Sigh...laugh...sob...:think: DRINK!

[Igel]

9. He's been pretty pointed about there being no

Taliban willing to work with Karzai.

On the other hand, there are occasional reports of groups of Taliban doing just that.

Taliban = Omar + leadership. No go.
Taliban = rank & file. Some "converts"

[never_get_over_it]

6. Maybe we promised

to send them another 43 million bucks like we did the summer before 9/11 - yeah thats the ticket

[VegasWolf]

7. Gotta give the Afgani's a break, how else will they restart that poppy

supply line to the US. Some of bush's ex-buddies are
starting to get a little itchy!

[Mountainman]

10. Bush's wars seem to go in circles, in the end we are right back where we

started. Vietnam was like that too. We could have saved the lives of over 50,000 GI's and millions of Vietnamese if we would have just left things alone.

[NNN0LHI]

11. The rich bastards need wars to get richer

Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan are all Mission Accomplished from that stand point.

Don

[leesa]

12. Not that they had anything to do with 9-11...but what does THAT detail

matter. We had these perfectly good plans already drawn up to invade Afghanistan so we could have access to the Caspian Sea oil and gas to exploit the Asian market. Heaven knows the idiot American public would swallow any lie we told them about 9-11.

[oasis]

15. Is that "carpet of gold" offer still good? (eom)

[Redstone]

16. Jeez, I've never seen a thread like this

where every single post is concise, to the point, thoughtful, pithy, on the mark, and even funny (in an "I have to laugh because it hurts so much" kind of way).

Ladies and gentlemen of DU, I salute you. You've refused the Kool-Aid.

Never give up.

Redstone

[agincourt]

17. Man, we sure would have never seen that one coming post-election.

What's next? Hire bin Laden through Pakistan, to overthrow Chavez of Venuzuala?

[LynnTheDem]

18. "Taliban no longer is in existence." ANOTHER one of them bush FLIP-FLOPs

And as a result of the United States military, Taliban no longer is in existence.”
-Bush, 9/27/04

But hey, even republicans knew at the time that that was just more bushit;

"There's estimates that 90 percent of the country — at least a very large percent of the country, is under the occupation of the Taliban and the warlords.”
-Rep. Paul (R-TX)., Remarks to House Committee on International Relations, 9/23/04