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Naweed Haqjoo / EPA
Relatives greet former Taliban militants following their release from Bagram detention center in Kabul, after they reached their home town in Ghazni, Afghanistan, Jan. 2, 2013. Some 16 former Taliban members who were detained during operations in Ghazni by the U.S. and Afghan forces were released as part of a government-backed program called Takhim-e-Solh, or "Strengthening Peace."
News analysis
KABUL, Afghanistan - There’s something wafting in the air in Afghanistan, and for once it’s not the smell of detritus, diesel or cordite. People – rivals, even enemies -- are talking about peace. Not just talks about talks – those have been going on – and off – for a couple of years now. But serious, genuine moves toward reconciliation are – for the first time since I can remember – actually squeezing into an otherwise depressing narrative of stalemate and loss.
Take the Pakistani government’s Dec. 31 release from prison of eight former Taliban members, including Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s right-hand man and former justice minister, Mullah Turabi. This move, Afghan analysts say, is part of a new strategy, formulated in a November meeting between Afghan and Pakistani officials in Islamabad. The release, they say, was more than a goodwill gesture between bitter rivals. The clear hope was that freed former Taliban officials with the stature of Turabi would serve as emissaries, clearing the way for peace talks between Hamid Karzai’s government and the current Taliban leadership – based in Pakistan – and with the Pakistan government’s blessing.
This was no isolated move. Eighteen other jailed Taliban were released earlier in December, among them men who used to command Taliban units in the field. Not surprisingly, official Afghan reaction has been quick and positive. Ismail Qasimyar, a ranking member of the High Peace Council, Karzai’s appointed group of diplomats seeking reconciliation, said the gesture "shows the Pakistani authorities have opened a new chapter for positive cooperation with Afghanistan." It’s the first time since the war began that I’ve seen Afghanistan and Pakistan treat each other as potential partners, not spoilers.
Pakistan’s military, believed by many to be supporting the Afghan Taliban as a means of leveraging its influence with its chaotic neighbor, is now jumping on the peace bandwagon as well. And it’s not just Pakistan’s Army Chief Ashfaq Kayani, the alleged driving force behind the new rapprochement, who is changing his tune.
Buried in the pre-holiday build-up, a semi-secret meeting took place outside Paris between 20 key Afghan players, under the auspices of a French think tank. Afghan government and opposition figures, and, for the first time, insurgent leaders, including the Taliban and its offshoot, Hezb-e-Islami, all sat down together. There were no breakthroughs, or even concessions, but the point was to get all the warring sides to do something they hadn’t done in some 30 years: talk directly to each other.
Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images
More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
Officially, the Taliban stuck to its public positions. It called the Afghan constitution illegitimate and refused to negotiate with the "U.S. puppet" Karzai government, but a positive momentum does seem to be building. More "secret" talks are set to follow. The United Nations office in Kabul has invited the Taliban to a conference there. Meanwhile, an official Taliban bureau will soon open in Qatar for parallel talks with the United States.
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AFP - Getty Images
Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar appears at an undisclosed location in a video taken on May 5, 2007.
Even the much-feared warlord and former Mujahedeen commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who was labeled a global terrorist by the U.S. and has been on the lam for the past dozen years, is now launching his own peace balloons. In an interview that appeared in Wednesday’s British "Daily Telegraph," the man who, as prime minister in the 1990s, oversaw the brutal flattening of much of Kabul, spells out a 10-point peace plan, calling on all Afghan brothers to unite, asking "all the stakeholders within Afghanistan to join hands for a workable solution for Afghanistan and resolve disputes.’’
Cynics – and there are many – aren’t buying any of it. Their arguments are well-known: They say civil war will break out as soon as the U.S. and its allies go home; that the moderate Taliban may want to put down their AKs and become a political force, but it’s the hard-core who rule, and who believe they’re winning the war; that all the peace feelers are just ways of buying time while the Afghan Taliban ratchets up its attacks on local security forces and the Pakistani Taliban doubles down on its side of the border, most recently killing a group of female NGO and aid workers.
All that rings true. But then I take a deep breath –- and smell that very different smell -– and ask: could this really be the turning point I’ve been writing about for so long?
Jim Maceda is an NBC News foreign correspondent based in London and currently on assignment in Kabul, who’s covered Afghanistan since the 1980s.
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Pakistan and Afghanistan get together and decide it is a good idea to release Taliban commanders and front line leaders.
We are dumping money into both the countries governments and this is how they repay us?
By releasing the enemy.
I guess we should stop taking prisoners.
I hope we planted microchips in these guys.
Track them back to their hideouts.
Oh, I get it. Another well deserved slap-in-the-face foreign policy failure by our elected leaders. Bring our troops home and keep 'em here.
I guess it's "cynical" to think these days. I don't know how anyone with eyes to see could bring themselves to believe that a failed state that has been in a constant state of war for the last 30 years is on the track to success.
...but then again, I guess we should just gleefully accept anything printed by MSNBC as Holy Writ.
I just don't see "peace" taking hold under anyone who opposes the Taliban's interpretation of Islam within the nation of Afghanistan. If so, that's great. But, as soon as more moderate heads clash with the ultra conservative views of Taliban traditionalists, all bets will be off ... and heads will be literally lopped off.
Minus the violence, there is simply no difference between Christian fundamentalists and Islamic ones. They believe in a wholly literal interpretation of their holy scriptures. There's no room for negotiations or middle ground. If you are "different" i.e. "progressive" within your thinking, than you are "unpure" and "unnatural". It's as simple as that.
We just spent 2300 soldier's lives and trillions of dollars just to have the crazy Taliban back beating woman and children into submission and acting like mad men of the 21st century. What a waste of lives and money. Pakistan and Afghanistan deserve each other. We don't need to be in bed with countries still living in low mid evil times.
I admit, I'm damn tired of it and I don't really care any more if every mother's son of them straps a bomb to their back and goes up in puff of dirty smoke. If they can come to a peaceful understanding, fine, if not - FINE.
how nice they all look like santa claus and smiling, while they pack there sleigh with RPG's and bring in the new year with attacks !
If this media really believes this @!$%# we are in serious trouble, they (taliban) will wait till we leave and resume power again !
I think they have been chewing on too many poppy seeds. Once they straighten out, they will resume slicing each other's head off, not necessarily a bad thing.
Things have been messed up for a long time. Foreign policy has gone wrong since the mid-70's. This former CIA person explains why.
http://www.newsmax.com//Manage/Videos/VideoGallery/Rustmann#ooid=VoaGZrMzqZkDRzSYzOM_zuaYPcSD78Kp
There's something in the air over there all right - but it's certainly NOT peace, or anything of the kind. The Taliban are just biding their time and waiting in the wings for us to leave that kraphole. Then the bullets will be flying and the bombs will start rocking in earnest.
An additional note on the video. The title on the linked page is a bit misleading as to all that is in the video. This very experienced ex CIA officer explains to an interviewer why our dealings with middle eastern countries has gone down hill over the years. He starts with what happened to Iran when we lost the Shah and ended up with the Ayatollah then continues with Libya, Egypt, Afghanistan and so on. The CIA handled things better in the old days but no longer does as well. That is why we end up in messy wars and lousy outcomes. Now the Taliban is returning...not good.
That is about as likely as ice skating in Hell.
Are the Taliban just going to pack up, and leave when we do ?
Are the drugs that finance much of the Taliban terrorism going to cease the flow when there is world wide demand for it ?
Are Arab men ever going to stop throwing acid on their wives faces because they were gang raped by other Muslim men ?
Are Shiites and Sunnis, and Sufis, and all the other sects of Islam, Christianity, and folk belief systems suddenly hold hands, sing and break bread ?
You know, I could just keep going on, and on. What a bullshjt article.
If one has allies like one-way traffic seventh century Islamic, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, one does not need enemies.
"Take the Pakistani government’s Dec. 31 release from prison of eight former Taliban members, including Taliban leader Mullah Omar’s right-hand man and former justice minister, Mullah Turabi."
One year after NATO forces are withdrawn from Afghanistan in 2014, just read this news despatch and examine how dumb the so-called peace process was!
There were similar dramas before withdrawing from Iraq. Why not many are looking into what is going on in Iraq?
If this is the way to run from a nation, why go into wars in the first place?
There will be no peace in Afgahnistan. We will leave as we should have done years ago. We will call it having brought them peace while nothing there will have changed except they will have more weapons from the west. Our main contribution will be leaving them with a president that is a criminal and will likely be assasinated.
The answer to the question posed in the headline can be answered in two words. Not Hardly! There is about as much chance of lasting peace in Afghanistan as there is of the Vatican reining in it's pedophile priests! Karzai will give the Taliban the rope it needs just to turn around and hang Karzai and his government with. That's of course not considering that Karzai will just join the Taliban all together. As has been said above, get all our troops and civilian personnel out of the two worthless flea bitten sandtraps known as Pakistan and Afghanistan and bring them home yesterday. ! How much more of our blood and taxpayer dollars need to be wasted on backstabbing places where we are not wanted or appreciated!
I was all for this... till I found out they were releasing frelling LEADERS. I figured it'd be a few crazy warriors who had nowhere to go or nothing to do now that their leaders were put away... now the leaders are getting out. You know what I say? I say we get the heck out and let them bomb themselves back to the Stone Age. We got into this mess by helping Afghanistan fight off Russia. We should have let them all turn Red... Being the World Police got us into this mess. Let's just step back, grab some lawn chairs, and let them do what they do best. That's what we had to do, that's what they should do too.
They are greeted like returning heroes.
What can you expect from the ungrateful and backstabbing seventh century barbaric Islamists?
In Afghanistan, Pakis have backstabbed the US and NATO forces big time. Half of NATO forces deaths are due to ungrateful and backstabbing Pakis.
When the NATO forces were entering Kandahar in 2001, Pakis airlifted key al-Qaida, Taliban, ISI and others militants by back door from Kandahar.
This includes Mullah Omar, Osama and many including Paki Haqqani militant network leaders.
Hope people remember about Pakis sheltering Osama.
These Paki Islamic religious Nazis don't bother about their people and they are into reckless killing games in the name of jihad.
Drone attacks are not enough. To reduce NATO forces losses, carpet bomb Paki militant areas just like 1991 Iraqi war.
Or else just get out right now and say bye, bye to Afghanistan and Pakistan!
Not a single cent of our hard earned tax monies to these most ungrateful Islamic religious Nazis.
We should pack up and leave ASAP. Not one single dollar in aid should be given to them. In the past we used the region to as a thorn in the side of the USSR. There will not be any country to step in and help them financially as most every non-islamic country either doesn't trust them or realizes they gain nothing by investing. Let them have their opium farms and let them continue to treat their women as property. If anything, we should set up programs to relocate women and children that want to leave into other countries that do not support the Taliban or Wahabi mentality. At least then the next generation of males will not be so inclined or brainwashed into jihadi activities.
Amen.
It won't be long, and the "peace in the air" will be replaced with bullets and shrapnel.
Peace has been 'off the air' anywhere in the Middle East for at least 40 years.
At least.
Isn't that how long Moses walked around looking for the land of Milk and honey?
Hi McGusto.
Hi.
Who are you?
And in the Afghanistan and Pakistan region since the followers of Islamic cult set their feet in!
The Islamic extremist Frankenstein monsters have started backstabbing big time the inventers of Pakistan, British, and the masters (US and allies) who kept them alive.
In most of the Islamic terrorism and plots in the US, Britain, Europe and other places, Pakis have a hand.
Before followers of Islamic cult set their feet on Afghan and Paki regions, these regions were quite peaceful and prosperous.
Once the cancer of Islam gradually got control of the region, those regions have become raping, stealing, looting and killing fields.
In Afghanistan, Paki proxies Taliban did not even tolerate Buddha’s statue in Bamiyan.
Many Paki areas and some Afghan areas have become breeding and exporting centers for illegal activities including drugs growing and trading and export of Islamic radicals and terrorists all over the world.
British invented Pakistan in 47 and Pakistan is supposed to be a pure Islamic nation. In Pakistan, it was massive genocides of minorities in between 48-50.
Percentages of Hindus and Sikhs were reduced from about 24 percent less than three years by rapings, stealing, lootings, terrorizing and killing on a massive scale.
Paki Islamic religious madness did not end there.
Sunni Pakis are after Ahmedias, Sufis (fake love and dance Islamic soap opera people), Shiites (20 percent), Hazaras, and Baloochs and other minority sects/tribes.
Shiites, Sufis, Ahmedias and other minority sects/tribes people are blown up while they pray in their mosques on Fridays. And even hospitals are bombed to kill those injured.
Most unfortunate part is that these seventh century Islamic religious Nazis imagine that are too smart and if they do peace dances, they can fool their masters US, Britain, France, Germany and other European nations.
We fall into their traps most of the times getting badly hurt and humiliated.
Look at the case of some NATO forces "burning Quran" in Afghanistan and Obama ending up apologizing.
Can there be more humiliating experiences to a master, who has kept Pakistan on the map alive?
CAN ANYONE TRUST A WORD OF WHAT THESE ISLAMIC BARBARIANS SAY?
ROTFLMAO.. Only some one stupid enough to beleive what they see on NBC/MSNBC would beleive this. It part of the obama media campaign to make the retreat look like a success.
so we should stay another 10 years? 100? just curious what YOU would do instead of "retreat"?
We will have 10,000 troops there until 2024. 12 years.
Per Obama's plan.
Troops are still being deployed.
got a link to 10,000 troops until 2024? I see references to "special forces", but not 10,000 troops that long.
we'll have special forces in the middle east until the oil runs out, so that's not a surprise.
and yes, troops are being deployed there..to replace the greater number who are being rotated home, bringing the net number down over time.
My son's Bde is being re-deployed back to Afghanistan for another tour in a few months. So, Obama's talk of bringing troops home dont wash well with my family.
Thank you for raising a fine young man.
Bring them all home or let them flatten the place.
No more of our hard earned tax monies in Islamic hell holes, Pakistan/Killistan and Afghanistan!
navyvet98
This has been going on long before Obama. We have been doing this sort of thing as a result of our empire building as long as I have been around which is over 80 years.
There is no seeking peace, only profit.
Now has come the time we will pay for it. How we handle that will set our future for us.
10 years, a few thousand US soldier's lives, tens of thousands of Afghan lives, and several trillion dollars later and... the Taliban is negotiating their return to power.
Awesome guys. Totally worth it.
Like Vietnam?
Scubasteve58001
Let's keep in mind who profits from these useless wars. They are the cancer that is killing ALL of us.
It will be easy to tell when these people will quit killing each other. There will be none left.
We keep dumping money on these old tribal despots that will just implement harsh or harsher shari / tribal / rules that give no one rights other than support of harsh tribal rules.
Lets find a plan that will work -
Round up every male in the country over 8 yrs old, put them in concentration camps. Once the country is firmly being run by women, and there is a well established women's military, let the women let them out with no rights to guns. Either that or shoot everyone.
What a dishonest piece!
The Taliban will not compromise unless it is to fool idiots like our leftist pigs! Once the Taliban has removed its greatest threat (US!), they will then seek to overpower the lightweight Afghans who are fooled by the thoughts of peace. There is no compromise with the Taliban. Once we leave, the Taliban will seek and punish every "traitor" and shoot and behead them. This is what they do. And then they'll go after the women and dogs will be treated better!
Fools!
so, what should our policy be in afghanistan?
Laser, you remind me of my dog when he was young and stupid.
He thought he knew everything, too, until he ate something that made him puke for a couple of days. He's gotten smarter since then. Maybe you will, too.
Or you can just keep gnashing your teeth, farting patriotically, and shouting for more of our troops to die so you can feel like a tough guy.
Let me say this about that. BullF'n@!$%#e. Nuke both.
The Taliban heard the US was going to send Eric Cantor and Mr. Boehmer ther to negotiate a US withdrawal so they decided it was in their best interest to resolve this before that happened.
Flush like a toilet, USD and lives down the drain for 12 years. What a joke.
If Congress and the Senate can avoid the Fiscal Cliff, there is hope. Ultimately the Afgans and Pakistanies have to create their own future and peace. Think of how much aid money would flow if they reconciled. Afganistans problems were mostly of outsiders makings. Prior to 1979 Afganistan had managed to avoid WWI and WWII. They were the focus of great power rivalry when the Soviet Union and USA engaged in the Cold War. Let peace break out and let the Afgans determine how it will be conducted. Good Luck!
It's hard to know what plan of action to take.
Because we don't know what is going on behind the scenes.
What are our mining interests and such.
I sure am tired of us training them, arming them and then getting killed with our own guns.
I'm for winning war decisively.
Pound them until you get an unconditional surrender.
Disarm every person in the country.
We kill them
we pay them
we kill them
we arm them
we pay them
we kill them..................................
USA does not participate "Spoils of War". They normally let another country step in to negotiate a deal and that is, in this case, after the USA spends a trillion for new highways, public infrastructure and educating the population enough so they can be trained by the new country. Has there ever been a positive article from Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan? Something that makes all this worthwhile?
This article is so full of sh...tt. No peace, just waiting. This article is hopeful or backed by the Panettas who want to cut wherever however at all cost.
1) a power struggle will ensue
2) civil war will come next
3) investment will leave
4) immediate loss of freedoms and women will be at risk
5) training grounds for opium funded terrorists, also a meshing of Waziristan groups.
6) America leaves the remaining bases, and leaves a huge power vacuum.
7) Karzai calls for help, but too late, and America turns a blind eye, a deaf ear.
8) Karzai turns on us to save his own tail.
It will cost a trillion to fix the mess we are leaving behind. Lies from all sides. Only because America refuses to ever ever see anything thru, since WWII.
Don't forget Sharia Law will absolutely deter any Western influence, unless slowly evolved by Western presence. That won't happen now. Thank you Pres Obama and your henchman, Panetta.
how long should we stay there? how long will it take to fix...50 years? feel free to send YOUR children..and grandchildren...etc.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have one goal in common. That is to build up the opium trade to help finance terrorism around the globe. They can't do that while they're fighting the US forces as the Taliban. Maybe the US should just pull out and let India have a go at Pakistan without intervening.
Oh yeah. Peace will happen! Obama will get another Nobel Prize. Excuse me. I feel the need to vomit.
you just did, as you do with all your posts
peace, in the land where empires go to die? I think it was Alexander the Great who said that. I could be wrong. but you get my point. I suppose it is possible. They have been living with war for over 4 decades. Probably more like 4 centuries. So, I suppose it is possible. But I'll believe it when I see it.
releasing the Taliban leadership. hmmmmmm? well, since OBL is dead, along with his right hand henchman, Zawahiri, I suppose it is possible. But , keep the drones flyin. we're not done with those jerks yet. they caused way too much grief. Just keep the drones flyin.
All we're doing there now is guarding the poppy fields. with the occasional drone kill. and we can do that from here now. forget training them. let them train themselves now. we've trained enough for them to do that now.
With the world finally going home, it is genuinely possible for Afghanistan to finally get back to normal, whatever normal is for Afghanistan. That's because historically the thing which most Afghans hate the most is foreign occupation. I really think they have learned by now to keep al-Qaida at arm's length, don't you?
Right you are. With Osama Bin Laden killed, and Zawahiri killed, and all the rest of the Al Qaeda leadership killed, They stand a chance at peace. I know that others will fill the void in leadership that have been killed. But I think Al Qaeda has largely been broken . Yes, they will still be a threat. But that threat is getting smaller and smaller. Still, we must be vigilant in pursuing them.
The Taliban. Releasing them from prison may have appeared to gain some peace, but I still disagree with the release of Taliban commanders. Maybe they've learned , but I doubt it. They are religious zealots. Religious extremists. You get that in every religion. But these guys are in a league all of their own. No music? The way the treat women and girls? I don't see any significant change in cultural behavior. So the Taliban stays for the time being. The question is, will Karsai control them or be controlled by them. I don't see Karsai controlling them. So, that means, no peace. Because the Taliban will screw it all up.
"Is peace really in the air in Afghanistan?"
By any normal definition of the word peace... NO.
The cynics are the adults here. Everything else is pie-in-the-sky optimism.
This is pure poppycock propaganda meant to make Obama look good, as if that was possible. There will be no peace in Afghanistan. There will probably never be peace in Afghanistan. I'm happy that we we're leaving that G-d forsaken hell hole. It's not worth the life of one more of our righteous and courageous soldiers. Fighting Islamic fascism over there has probably protected us from Islamic terrorism here on the homefront. But enough is enough.
yeah, peace after they take our billions of dollars in aid/support then pour acid on the girls who try to attend school, blow up/shoot US soldiers and rape women, then... peace!
I'm thinkin we're not done with them yet. Ya gotta hand it to Obama and Panetta on this one. They have sought out, gone after, and killed more Taliban and Al Qaeda than the previous administration. Not a slight, just a fact. anyway, funny how this story shows up within 24 hrs of the story here.
The one thing we fail to ask in the question of peace for Afghanistan is whose peace? A peace that all of Afghanistan has to work at and participate in the freedom of choice and religion and equality. With a tolerance for indifference, that we think everyone should have, even if they don't understand it or believe it?
Or the Islamic rule of law to be governed by oppression and fear, accepted for love of their god, and faith in their prophet? If the Afghans are not smart enough to separate their religion from their hatred of the US and its "invading" allied armies. And instead decide that anything Islamic is better than anything US. Especially if it is freedom brought to them by the sacrifice of the US and its allies.
Then yes, through their ignorance and stupidity, to allow their own oppression through their religious belief, once again, an accepted bloody rein of peace, will prevail over Afghanistan. Their peace is nothing like ours.
There will never be peace, if they don't kill themselves, they are killing someone else. Islam breeds violence.