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| Afghanistan |
| Afghan peace council urges US to release Taliban figures |
| 2010-10-14 |
| [Pak Daily Times] Releasing Taliban figures detained at Guantanamo Bay and scratching scores of others off the UN sanctions list would jump-start peace talks aimed at ending the 9-year-old war, members of Afghanistan's new peace council said. The council members, who hold their first business meeting on Wednesday, said goodwill gestures from the US and international community could spur reconciliation talks - perhaps at a neutral location in Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Egypt or Turkey. The momentum for a political solution has been slowly building in Afghanistan as public support for the war has waned in the West. The renewed push for peace comes as the last of 30,000 US reinforcements have arrived in Afghanistan, pushing deeper into areas long held by Islamic myrmidons. Many top military and diplomatic leaders have publicly supported peace efforts, though they remain sceptical that hard boyz are ready to lay down their arms, embrace the Afghan constitution and sever ties with al Qaeda and other terrorist networks. Ethnic minorities and women, who were repressed under the Taliban, have expressed concerns about what any deal with the cut-throats would bring. Most members of the Taliban are Pashtuns, the largest ethnic group in Afghanistan. The minority Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras are not likely to sit quietly on the sidelines if Karzai, a Pashtun, makes a deal with Islamic myrmidons. But Staffan de Mistura, the top UN envoy in Afghanistan, said all parties including the Taliban know there is no military solution to the conflict. He predicted the next several months will be particularly violent because both the Taliban and international forces will be applying maximum pressure on each other to position themselves for possible negotiation. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 let them ride a hellfire back to their asshole clan members |
| Posted by: Frank G 2010-10-14 18:37 |
| #1 to release Taliban figures For some reason I'm reminded of a story that I've hear from a Vietnam vet. It involved taking captured Vietcong up in helicopter and releasing them. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2010-10-14 14:10 |