Can Karzai make peace with the Taliban?
(Burce Loudan ) |
Modern history is replete with schemes to capture the hearts and minds of those fighting for the insurgent cause - some successful, some not - and turn back the tide of rebellion.
So how, after last week's onslaught on central Kabul by the Taliban, should we view the imminent announcement by President Hamid Karzai of a major new initiative to "reconcile" with elements of the Taliban and "reintegrate" them into Afghan society? Read full content.......
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| A role for China (Huma Yusuf) |
Although think tanks in the United States are working overtime to solve the Pakistan ‘problem’, their final reports are drawing rather obvious conclusions: choking terror funding and promoting economic development. However, a new think tank report suggesting that the US and China put the stabilisation of Pakistan on top of their bilateral agenda raises an interesting prospect for combating regional terrorism. Read full content.......
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| Clear views from the Afghan summit (Simon Tisdall ) |
If nothing else, the London conference on Afghanistan concentrated minds. It defined the parameters of success and failure. It went some way towards charting a co-operative path out of the morass after eight years of often directionless drift. It dangled the prospect of a longed-for peace. But it provided no answer to the only question that really matters: will the new strategy work?
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| Troubled ties with Pakistan (Elisabeth Bumiller) |
Nobody else in the Obama administration has been mired in Pakistan for as long as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. So on a trip here this past week to try to soothe the country’s growing rancor toward the United States, he served as a punching bag tested over a quarter-century.
“Are you with us or against us?” a senior military officer demanded of Mr. Gates at Pakistan’s Read full content.......
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Can Zardari cling to power in Pakistan? (Mustafa Qadri)
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With his chequered past and unlikely rise to the top, it is understandable that Asif Ali Zardari has faced constant calls to resign ever since becoming president of Pakistan two years ago. The central focus of the grievances has been Pakistan's supreme court where a raft of charges have been submitted against Zardari and most of the senior leaders of the ruling Pakistan Peoples party by a motley mix of political parties, private citizens, Read full content.......
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Killing the enemy is not the best route to success
(SPIEGEL Interview with General Stanley McChrystal)
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General Stanley McChrystal, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, talks to
SPIEGEL about his new approach to the war, negotiations with the Taliban and the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
SPIEGEL: General McChrystal, a couple of months ago you said, "Since 9/11, I have watched as America tried to first put out this fire with a hammer, and it doesn't work." What did the Americans do wrong in Afghanistan?
McChrystal: At the end of the day, a counter-insurgency is decided by people's perceptions and by how people feel. I think any war like this is not a battle between material. It's not about destroying the enemy's cities. It's not even about destroying their army, their fighters. You have to weaken the insurgency. But it's really about convincing the people that they want it to stop and they ultimately will. The most effective way for us to operate is to be really good and effective partners with our Afghan counterparts, because it's not a technical problem, it's a human problem.
SPIEGEL: Your 66-page assessment of the situation in Afghanistan was the basis for US President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000 additional American soldiers
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