The recent meeting between a deputy of Richard Holbrooke, the United States special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and an emissary of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of Hezb-i-Islami Afghanistan (HIA), is by all accounts a landmark move in the United States' stated aim of involving militant groups in ending the conflict in Afghanistan. | I can't imagine Hekmatyar would want to be seen with Holbrooke ... |
| Which is correct ... |
It was "one of the most effective" in the sense that the Hek's mujaheddin and Masood's mujaheddin between them were responsible for a majority of the operations, when Hek wasn't actually on the Sov side. But the majority of that majority consisted of Masood's operations -- he really was the hero of the Afghan war. And combining Ismail Khan's operations or Haqqani's operations with Masood's while excluding Hek would probably still account for a majority of the operations, and certainly better account for the majority of the effective operations.
To date, however, the US has failed miserably in attracting mainstream Afghan forces of the past back into the political process, including tribal warlords, the Taliban, the Northern Alliance and the HIA.
I kinda sorta agree with that. We should be looking forward to replacing Karzai with somebody more capable, like Ismail Khan or even Younus Qanooni. We should be best friends with Ismail and with Mohammad Fahim and even with Dostum. We really should be holding together and expanding the Northern Alliance, if only in anticipation of Karzai actually losing the Pashtun areas to Pakistan-based al-Qaeda and their puppets like Baitullah Mehsud.
This means, as Peter Lee wrote last month in Asia Times Online, "...the unpredictable Hekmatyar, who has survived the jihad, the civil war, defeat at the hands of the Taliban, exile in Iraq, an assassination attempt by the CIA, and return to Afghanistan as an insurgent leader, is the great hope of all parties as the only Pashtun strongman untainted by al-Qaeda and possibly capable of taking on the Taliban."
I'm sure that Hek "allies" with al-Qaeda just as easily as he allies with Iran and the Paks and probably with the Paraguayans or even the Antarcticans if they have any money. He doesn't have to be "tainted" by an al-Qaeda alliance, since he's a taint in himself. His motto: "To thine own self and nobody else be true."
The insurgents loyal to Hekmatyar have now emerged as the most important component of anti-Western coalition resistance in Afghanistan. While most of Taliban-led resistance is situated near the Pakistan Afghanistan borders, insurgents loyal to Hekmatyar hold complete command over Kapissa province's Tagab valley, only 30 kilometers north of Kabul. The HIA, whose political wing has offices all over Afghanistan and keeps 40 seats in the Afghan parliament, is fully geared to replace President Hamid Karzai in the upcoming presidential elections.
Now, eight years after the US attack on Afghanistan, Washington is initiating dialogue with Hekmatyar through his longtime lieutenant Daoud Abedi, the link between the Hekmatyar and the West. Abedi is an Afghan-American based in California as well as a prominent businessman, social worker and a former representative of the HIA.
Kill him. And set Ismail Khan on Hekmatyar.