makes sense, sometimes you have to dance with the devil.
valid questions, but then there still remain a ton of valid questions about operation Neptune Spear. I doubt the full truth will ever come out for Mansour, he and the taliban are nowhere near as high profile in 2016 as Osama still was till he was taken out.
more glaring inconsistencies, and whatever happened to that 'Wali Muhammad' guy ?
what an insane game of poker, the US, the Pak military establishment, the Afghan Taliban, all keeping their cards close to their chest, and no one's got a clue to the truth.
just throwing out all plausable reasons for the sake of debate
now hear this out too
why Govt/ Military kept quiet for few days although the drone strike had happened some time ago?
the guy was suborn and disagreeable in the on going negotiations (confirmed by Americans)
it was NOT the Iranians that sold him out but the ISI that passed a "helpful" lead .. which helped in tracking him and taking him out...
but why?
in the background Haqqani's are being considered as an alternative replacement to negotiate with Americans (will sound blasphemous going by the public narrative).
reasons are
Haqqanis remain the most potent viable force that holds the stake in Afghanistan's future and after the demise of Mullah Omar they command the support of the marginalised Pashton Majority of Afghanistan. hate them as much we want but we cant expect peace by ignoring them and trying to negotiate with an unknown local weak commander who might get upstaged by rival local commander.
Also... Americans hold one of the Haqqani's siblings under their captivity which helps Pakistan to convince them to come to their senses and try out peace negotiation.
But this will all have to wait
for coming weeks .. we can expect some carnage , turmoil and devastation in Afghanistan as a response to this assassination. prospect rival commanders will try to assert themselves by launching attacks on Kabul regime and foreign forces, the ISIS will definitely take advantage of this and will try to carve in more influence at the expense of Afghan taliban.
the racist bigots that make up the Kabul regime who hate the Afghan pashton population with a passion will persecute the Pashtons even further and this will continue till this fall .. killing an Afghan commander has never helped .
its the lesson of time for centuries.
pray (if you care) for the safety and peace of Afghanistan and I pray for Both Afghanistan and Pakistan for the possible fall out.