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Michael Semple, one of the authors of the report who has lead negotiations with elements of the Taliban in the past, said: "This derives from the understanding that there is not going to be a military solution in Afghanistan, that the war being fought is unwinnable, and from a strong sense among some of the 40-something Taliban leadership that they don’t want the country to disintegrate into civil war when foreign forces leave the country in 2014."'

This guy Semple tried this before and got people killed. Some place called Musa Qala. Semple's probably one of John Kerry's [think of his Paris rogue diplomacy trying to help the North Vietnamese] and Holbrooke's ilk. The Taliban do not think they are losing. They know all they have to do is wait us out, which was OBL and Mullah Omar's plan from the beginning- start something, engage us, kill some, watch us run... consolidate position, start something, wash, rinse, repeat until they win. OBL said Americans are weak and can always be counted on to run. The idea that the Obama admin and others are trying to lay out- that you can announce your withdrawal in advance and expect to leave as victors is delusional. You've already capitulated. In most articles the Obama admin is trying to claim Karzai is driving the idea of talks with the Taliban when it is clearly Holbrooke, is just the Obama admin trying to avoid responsibility and blame for fear of damage on the election trail. But they have to go through with it for their agenda- to engineer defeat as they did in the 70s.