Obama mulls reaching out to moderate Taliban: report

[Astrad]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – President Barack Obama is open to the idea of reaching out to moderate elements of the Taliban, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

In an interview with the newspaper published on its website, Obama said that some of the U.S. success in Iraq involved reaching out to Islamic fundamentalists who had been alienated by the tactics of al Qaeda in Iraq.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090307/pl_nm/us_obama_afghanistan_2

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"Moderate Taliban" isn't that sort of like "compassionate conservative"?

[ananda]

1. exactly

Moderate and Taleban are a contradiction
in terms.

[annabanana]

7. disagree...

Most of the taliban are pashtun tribe members living in small villages and family groups scattered around the mountains.. They are not necessarity ideological pusrists ala Al Qaida... A lot of them would just as soon that the ideologues left them the hell alone. .

[eleny]

2. Whatever he decides, it better be the perfect decision

[Occam Bandage]

3. Well, not necessarily.

They might, for instance, be in favor of locking women in the house, but against blowing up aid agencies for funding schools that teach women.

[flyarm]

4. Obama Ponders Outreach to Elements of the Taliban

Obama Ponders Outreach to Elements of the Taliban

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/us/politics/08obama.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

President Obama declared in an interview that the United States was not winning the war in Afghanistan and opened the door to a reconciliation process in which the American military would reach out to moderate elements of the Taliban, much as it did with Sunni militias in Iraq.

The NYT had an interview with Obama aboard Air Force One and the article mentions the financial crisis, health care and Afghanistan. Apparently that was not enough, so after that interview, BO called reporters back.


After the interview, which took place as the president was flying home from Ohio, he called reporters from the Oval Office to assert that his actions have been “entirely consistent with free-market principles” and to point out that large-scale government intervention in the markets and expansion of social welfare programs began under President George W. Bush.
———–
The president spoke at length about the struggle with terrorism in Afghanistan and elsewhere, staking out positions that at times seemed more comparable to those of his predecessor than many of Mr. Obama’s more liberal supporters would like. He did not rule out the option of snatching terrorism suspects out of hostile countries.

Asked if the United States was winning in Afghanistan, a war he effectively adopted as his own last month by ordering an additional 17,000 troops sent there, Mr. Obama replied flatly, “No.”

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Mr. Obama signaled that those on the left seeking a wholesale reversal of Mr. Bush’s detainee policy might be disappointed. Mr. Obama said that by the time he got into office, the Bush administration had taken “steps to correct certain policies and procedures after those first couple of years” after the Sept. 11 attacks.

[Turbineguy]

5. I suppose

a guy who kills somebody before he skins them is a moderate Taliban

[marshall]

8. Maybe the moderates use a sharp knife rather than a dull one

When they're sawing off somebody's head.

[camera obscura]

6. This is essentially what we did in Iraq, the Awakening movements in Anbar & elsewhere

If it was, say, General Petraeus suggesting this strategy, there would be no uproar. But given the eye popping headline expect some Freeper teeth-gnashing.

[cooolandrew]

9. Well not to certain there is moderation there BUT the talking has to start somewhere and that's a >

good sign.

[ddeclue]

10. I guess the "moderate" Taliban doesn't blow up ancient irreplaceable statues

they merely spray paint them with grafitti?

:shrug:

[Uzybone]

11. Even the Nazis had moderates

We either kill them all or talk to some and get peace and security that way.

[AllentownJake]

12. Ever read the Bookseller of Kabul?

That guy was a liberal in Afghan society. He made freepers look advanced. I don't think you can have a democracy in those conditions and I don't know why we are trying to build one.