All-Green
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As much as your concern for Afghanistan is appreciable you must also realize that the much-assumed influence that you claim Taliban has on Afghan politics is simply because it never allowed the existence of a legitimate opposition and ruled on the basis of gun and sheer terror. While your administration might be interested in using them to consolidate your strategic hold on Afghanistan, other countries in the world community can simply not allow this as having hardened terrorists like Taliban are a threat to everyone around perhaps other than your country, as has been noticed in Europe and North America since the last nine years.
Your recognition of this TTP is that of a terrorist organization is because they are a threat to your country's stability. The same way Taliban has been given the recognition by all of us because they along with many sister terrorist organizations are a threat to us and in simple terms anybody supporting them whether overtly or covertly would mean they are supporting terrorism against Europe and North America.
This would put the Pakistani military and civilian leadership on cross-roads with a lot of countries with whom they have had excellent ties in the past.
Knowing American administration somewhat, I can safely say that the timeline is more of a political gamble that has been taken in the American administration, simply because most American commanders have lost too much in their war and pulling out half way without any significant gains would be something they would be dead against. It is quite clearly visible in this analysis and naturally this has been written with the view that some of the commander in American military establishment are inspecting the viability of a conflict with some of your agencies, should that be deemed absolutely vital for a timely Afghan pull-out.
Negotiation with Taliban are a no-no for the entire world community and it should be an unlikely move as American opposition seems to have slammed it. The war is likely to continue since Americans are in no mood to repay their already ballooned debt and would simply mean using Chinese and other entities' money to continue the war.
Simply put, you have failed to grasp the crux of my post in your eagerness to draw parallels with entities active in Pakistan, which is a typical behavior these days i must add.
Perhaps i have ample knowledge of Afghan Taliban, TTP and Al Qaeda and choose to distinguish between these forces not due to their bias (or lack of) against Pakistan but based on their ideology, historical background and objectives.
Unlike what you have suggested, i do not brand TTP as a non political entity because of its enmity towards Pakistan alone.
TTP or Al Qaeda are not political entities and exert next to no political influence over the locals.
I have not glorified the Afghan Taliban and i am aware of their tactics, however you seem to have no recollection of the Civil war and the warring factions which all used guns and had no tolerance for opposition!
In this mindset the Taliban were not alone, their tactics were not unprecedented and certainly not better or worse than the warlords who preceded them...however they brought uniformity no matter how extremely stupid or cruel somethings they did would seem to us.
I am not suggesting to have Taliban rule again, the decision rests with Afghans and not the Americans or Pakistanis.
What i am suggesting is a mature outlook towards the formulation of a long term strategy, rather than indulging in another power struggle where one side is being shutout.
The debate is not about good or bad, the current power holders are also not entirely absolved of war crimes or extremely brutal tactics either, lest one forgets what these people also did in the Afghan civil war.
The point which i tried to make is that after the Afghan Russia war, power in Afghanistan was always being wielded by the man with the big gun, so demonizing Taliban and saying that they were only in power due to show of arms is quite silly in my opinion.
The Taliban gained local support and gained power due to this support; weapons were readily available to and being used by their opponents as well who had their own backers and were equally well trained.
Had Taliban no support how could they have won over so much territory which other warlords with similar weapons and fighters failed to gain or hold?
The fact is that initially the Taliban agenda of unification appealed to most people who were sick of the thousands of countries within a country....whether the people hated Taliban later or were supportive or had mixed feelings is something we can all argue about, however the Taliban did get a lot of initial support which made it possible for them to overcome many opponents.
The fact is that Taliban gained significant political support and managed to form a government for a significant time, hence they are not a political non entity like Al Qaeda or TTP who have no political hold on the people.
They have been part of the past leadership and any policy which ignores them and hopes to bring stability is not practical.
To simply dismiss the Taliban as similar to TTP and Al Qaeda is a grave mistake which policymakers should avoid, even if it means swallowing their pride.
Involving Taliban does not imply a Taliban style rule, however it is something that should be done for the sake of reconciliation and to restore a semblance of stability to Afghanistan.
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