U.S. Trying To Convert Taliban To Ways Of Freedom

IBD Editorials ^ | May 22, 2012 | Editor

[Kaslin]

Defeat: President Obama's failure to re-open a key Pakistan-to-Afghanistan supply route is symptomatic of overall diplomatic incompetence. The U.S. thinks the Taliban and other jihadists can be converted into good guys.

Charm and brains (supposedly) and a Nobel Peace Prize. Armed with such tools — plus the mightiest military in the history of the world — why can't President Barack Obama convince piddly little Pakistan to clear the vital land route needed by the U.S. to haul tons of military vehicles from Afghanistan as the Yankees go home, which presumably is what the Muslim world wants?

The route has been closed since November. The reason given is America's refusal to apologize and pay reparations for U.S. airstrikes that hit two border posts and killed dozens of Pakistani soldiers.

But one could ask why Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, whose wife Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by al-Qaida-affiliated jihadists four-and-a-half years ago, would want to help the U.S. hand neighboring Afghanistan back into the hands of the fanatical Taliban.

Afghanistan watchers know that the country is gazing into an abyss that President Obama has rendered inescapable.

The coded signals of impending catastrophe he used in speaking to the NATO Summit this week include "hard days ahead," "great challenges ahead" and a "transformational decade."

But Obama's claim that "we will stand united in our determination to complete this mission" in Afghanistan is laughable upon close examination of what his administration's broad mission really is in Mideast policy.

[piasa]

Qadeer Khan’s network, that is.

[Kaslin]

To think that they can convert the Taliban is quite naive. I stand by my statement that the administration is not only stupid, but also ignorant

[piasa]

My point is that the Obama administration is not really trying to "convert" the Taliban. If they are then that is stupid, but I don't for a minute believe they are.

They like the Taliban just fine the way they are, though they might like to persuade them to back off a bit until after the US election. They can throw bombs after November to their hearts' content. Clinton liked the Taliban well enoughack in his day and his wife's Obama's Sec of State now. heck, the Clinton state Department liked Gulbuddin Hekmatyar too, look how well that went.

Just like the radical left of the Democrat party- which is now in control of the Democrat Party, heck, in control of our government- was never out trying to convert the Sandinistas to democracy, either. If anything, most were trying to help them or even JOIN them in subversion to support the revolutionary cause. Jimmy Carter was out there babbling about democracy and so on but he looked genuinely upset when the Sandinistas didn't win that election.

And Obama, first thing out of the gate, set about subverting democratic ideals, rather than promoting them, by trying to force Honduras to take Zelaya back and submit to Zelaya's rule after they impeached him. After that fiasco, what makes anyone other than the media seriously think the Obama admin is interested in instilling democratic ideas elsewhere, such as Afghanistan?

[gandalftb]

You’re being too kind, Obama has gone far beyond naive, ignorant and stupid.

Obama is in a Twilight Zone of sheer madness.

Even if the Pakhtun were not Taliban or even muslim, they are the most warlike peoples on earth and have been slaughtering themselves for all of known history.

We are training them in the science of war. What does anyone think the ANA will do with those weapons and training?

They will listen to their fathers and grandfathers whom were also in the ANA under the Russians and switched over to the Taliban by the thousands after their Hazara officers ran for their lives.

We will be held responsible for this madness. Karzai controls no more than Kabul and never will go beyond.

ISAF aircraft and Special Forces will keep him propped up for awhile.

Two kinds of reports are coming back from Afghanistan:

1. The Taliban are holding off attacks and joining the ANA enmasse for weapons training.

2. The ANA is filled with talk of switching to the Taliban as soon as ground operations cease and we are out of country or gone to garrison.

Conquest always dies of indigestion.

[Kaslin]

Then are you saying that he will succeed in converting the Taliban? That is a laugh

[PapaBear3625]

A Taliban member, by definition, is an Islamist ("Taliban" means religious student).

Freedom implies the freedom to not have to behave according to Sharia, or indeed the freedom to reject Islam.

The two are totally incompatible.

[PapaBear3625]

Conquest always dies of indigestion.

There is only one 100%-sure method to conquer and hold, and that is to go in, kill ALL the original inhabitants, and re-populate the area with your own people. We're not going to do that.

[gandalftb]

FOB Dwyer is in the Garmsir District. A local told me that Garmsir means "hot place". If they think its hot, it's hot. I don't need Jerry Reed singing to me to know to get out of there. There is no water. Most of our convoy casualties have been caused because we are forced to truck water in. Here's what you would be repopulating:

[gandalftb]

Exactly, we are paying, training and arming the future Taliban.

[PapaBear3625]

OK, so skip repopulating.

[Eleutheria5]

Taliban? Leave them alone for a few more decades, away from Arab agitators, with nothing to do but hump their own sheep, and there won’t be any more Taliban. Freedom? Out in a wasteland, you’re already free. It’s when you go into town that you have to worry.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks gandalftb.