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
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?
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.