Why the Taliban are getting a new address
Firdous Syed | Wednesday, January 11, 2012
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The Taliban are about to open an office in Qatar. Rumours were rife that America has opened clogged channels with the Taliban; denials emanating from the both sides adding to the ambiguities.
The Taliban spokesperson finally confirming that ‘a preliminary deal to set up the office in Qatar’, provides some credence to the so called ‘reconciliation’ process.
Qatar known to the outside world as home to television network Al Jazeera, if things go as planned, (according to American thinking) may soon turn out to be the cradle of the Taliban’s transformation. Housing a Taliban office in the tiny gulf state of Qatar seems to be a calibrated move; it is envisioned to achieve many goals. First of all, a Taliban outpost far away from Kabul and Islamabad is to insulate the reconciliation process from any outside influence, enabling America to have complete control over the course of action.
A Kabul regime led by Karzai may have no influence over the Taliban, but being in power it can still derail the American-led talks with the Taliban. Pakistan, in order to protect its strategic interests to America’s great disliking, wants to fully control if not own the entire process. Pakistan is in the frame but marginally, America will not like it to hold a carte blanche over any Taliban engagement. To weaken the stranglehold of Pakistan, America has initiated talks with Taliban in a gulf state. Significantly, Taliban are also keen to have a direct contact with Washington. Qatar is the staunchest ally of America in the region. In the just concluded Libyan civil war, leading to the end of Gaddafi’s despotic rule, Qatar is touted to have played a significant role in weaving a coalition that included even those groups that fought along with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. That experience with precision is aimed to be repeated in Afghanistan. The makeover package — fantastic imagination — is aimed to turn Taliban from a “hardcore, conservative, anti-feminist, medieval looking men”, an image firmly fixated in Western minds, to that of responsible state actors “renouncing violence and accept(ing) the Afghan Constitution and its commitments to political and human rights for all Afghans”.
Key to any amicable solution and moreover an honourable exit for America and its allied forces from the Afghan quagmire is to bring all groups including the Taliban and the erstwhile Northern Alliance to the dialogue table. It is easier said than done. Taliban wants complete withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan; it will ordinarily never accept permanent American bases. Certainly America will like to withdraw a bulk of its forces as planned, but is strongly determined to maintain few military bases beyond 2014. America may sacrifice the Karzai regime in order to allow Taliban to be a key part of the new dispensation, provided Taliban are prepared to accept the present Afghan constitution. Naturally, the idea is of regime change and not destruction of the entire state edifice built from the scratch after the ouster of Taliban in 2001.
America, from the time it invaded Afghanistan in furry, has come a long way; after every turn of event it changed the goalpost. Very quickly the superpower realised it is not possible to rebuild tribal Afghanistan into a modern state; the idea of ushering in a Jeffersonian democracy was discarded immediately after the invasion.
The military surge after Obama took over was designed to subdue the Taliban into submission; the mantra was ‘integration’. That too failed. Dialogue with the Taliban is merely not recognition of the Taliban as a vital Afghan element, it is an acceptance of the fact that it is not possible for a superpower along with 45 allies to defeat the ragtag Taliban.
From complete military victory — to integration after renouncing violence — now finally the idea of reconciliation with the Taliban is being explored, of course, laced with the idea of transformation. The Taliban are fiercely independent-minded. Is it possible to wean them away and make them accept a more moderate position? Good luck to America in its new found enterprise. Afghanistan, true to its reputation, has once again proved to be graveyard of empires.
In the process, America has lost the aura of an invincible superpower.
That is not enough; it has lost all the credibility. Looking back at the decade of war that president Obama recently declared has come to an end, from Iraq to Afghanistan, apart from the huge bloodshed and destruction caused, what has America been able to achieve? War of vengeance destroyed the prospects of peace.
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The Taliban are about to open an office in Qatar. Rumours were rife that America has opened clogged channels with the Taliban; denials emanating from the both sides adding to the ambiguities.
The Taliban spokesperson finally confirming that ‘a preliminary deal to set up the office in Qatar’, provides some credence to the so called ‘reconciliation’ process.
Qatar known to the outside world as home to television network Al Jazeera, if things go as planned, (according to American thinking) may soon turn out to be the cradle of the Taliban’s transformation. Housing a Taliban office in the tiny gulf state of Qatar seems to be a calibrated move; it is envisioned to achieve many goals. First of all, a Taliban outpost far away from Kabul and Islamabad is to insulate the reconciliation process from any outside influence, enabling America to have complete control over the course of action.
A Kabul regime led by Karzai may have no influence over the Taliban, but being in power it can still derail the American-led talks with the Taliban. Pakistan, in order to protect its strategic interests to America’s great disliking, wants to fully control if not own the entire process. Pakistan is in the frame but marginally, America will not like it to hold a carte blanche over any Taliban engagement. To weaken the stranglehold of Pakistan, America has initiated talks with Taliban in a gulf state. Significantly, Taliban are also keen to have a direct contact with Washington. Qatar is the staunchest ally of America in the region. In the just concluded Libyan civil war, leading to the end of Gaddafi’s despotic rule, Qatar is touted to have played a significant role in weaving a coalition that included even those groups that fought along with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. That experience with precision is aimed to be repeated in Afghanistan. The makeover package — fantastic imagination — is aimed to turn Taliban from a “hardcore, conservative, anti-feminist, medieval looking men”, an image firmly fixated in Western minds, to that of responsible state actors “renouncing violence and accept(ing) the Afghan Constitution and its commitments to political and human rights for all Afghans”.
Key to any amicable solution and moreover an honourable exit for America and its allied forces from the Afghan quagmire is to bring all groups including the Taliban and the erstwhile Northern Alliance to the dialogue table. It is easier said than done. Taliban wants complete withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan; it will ordinarily never accept permanent American bases. Certainly America will like to withdraw a bulk of its forces as planned, but is strongly determined to maintain few military bases beyond 2014. America may sacrifice the Karzai regime in order to allow Taliban to be a key part of the new dispensation, provided Taliban are prepared to accept the present Afghan constitution. Naturally, the idea is of regime change and not destruction of the entire state edifice built from the scratch after the ouster of Taliban in 2001.
America, from the time it invaded Afghanistan in furry, has come a long way; after every turn of event it changed the goalpost. Very quickly the superpower realised it is not possible to rebuild tribal Afghanistan into a modern state; the idea of ushering in a Jeffersonian democracy was discarded immediately after the invasion.
The military surge after Obama took over was designed to subdue the Taliban into submission; the mantra was ‘integration’. That too failed. Dialogue with the Taliban is merely not recognition of the Taliban as a vital Afghan element, it is an acceptance of the fact that it is not possible for a superpower along with 45 allies to defeat the ragtag Taliban.
From complete military victory — to integration after renouncing violence — now finally the idea of reconciliation with the Taliban is being explored, of course, laced with the idea of transformation. The Taliban are fiercely independent-minded. Is it possible to wean them away and make them accept a more moderate position? Good luck to America in its new found enterprise. Afghanistan, true to its reputation, has once again proved to be graveyard of empires.
In the process, America has lost the aura of an invincible superpower.
That is not enough; it has lost all the credibility. Looking back at the decade of war that president Obama recently declared has come to an end, from Iraq to Afghanistan, apart from the huge bloodshed and destruction caused, what has America been able to achieve? War of vengeance destroyed the prospects of peace.
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