If you thought the Brits were going soft on Afghanistan, the UN has one-upped them by demanding direct negotiations with the senior most leaders of the Taliban, including, presumably, Mullah Omar himself. The Brits have also been aggressively pushing for negotiations with the Taliban, but last weekend, the UN’s special representative to Afghanistan blasted the Brits for being too hard line.
To be clear, Eide believes we can negotiate with the likes of Mullah Omar, who chose to sacrifice his ideal Islamist emirate in late 2001 rather than hand over Osama bin Laden. What does he think would happen if, by some chance, Omar decided to negotiate, accepted an agreement, and bided his time until foreign forces left? Does he really think Omar, whose regime allowed al Qaeda to thrive and plot and execute the September 11 attacks, will give up his alliance with the terror group? Or is the goal just as Eide said, to “bring this conflict to an end” — no matter what?
