US open to reconciling with Taliban: commander

source-dawn.com
WASHINGTON: The top commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan on Tuesday vowed coalition forces would prevail in the war and said he was open to reconciling with rank-and-file insurgents.‘We will win. The Taliban won’t win. But we will also have to deal through good and bad days, and good and bad months,’ General Stanley McChrystal told US National Public Radio.

The US commander’s comments came after he told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Monday that the Taliban had momentum in the war and that Nato-led forces had to ‘stop their initiative.’ The insurgency has reached its most deadly level since the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime, with a record 76 coalition soldiers killed last month.McChrystal said he supported President Hamid Karzai’s view that many insurgents were motivated by money and not ideology.‘I would absolutely be comfortable with fighters and lower level commanders making the decision to reintegrate into the Afghan political process under the Afghan constitution,’ he said.



As for reconciling with higher level figures in the insurgent leadership, McChrystal said ‘that’s clearly up to him (Karzai).’ Karzai, who took office after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001 and is favored to win in elections on August 20, has so far failed in his bid to persuade large numbers of insurgents to lay down their arms and accept the country’s constitution.Asked about security for the elections in the volatile Helmand province, where thousands of US forces have deployed, McChrystal said most Afghans would have the opportunity to vote.He said that ‘the vast percentage of voters in Helmand are going to have the option to vote’ but added it was possible some would choose to stay away from the polls.



Amid growing speculation McChrystal will ask President Barack Obama for more US troops, the general said he could not rule out such a request.And he said he would like to see more Afghan security forces though he said there was a misconception that Afghan troops were absent in southern provinces.‘The idea that there aren’t Afghan National Army in there is incorrect,’ he said.‘Are there as many Afghan National Army as we’d like? No there are not. The Afghan National Army is still something that’s growing in size,’ he said.

McChrystal, who is preparing a strategic assessment for Afghanistan due to be submitted by early September, is likely to urge a dramatic increase in Afghan security forces, analysts said.

Karzai said Monday he would double Afghanistan’s security forces and push plans for Saudi-mediated peace talks with insurgents if he is elected for a second term.There are more than 100,000 international soldiers in Afghanistan, with more than 60,000 from the US military

INTERVIEW SHOWS SPLIT IN PAKISTANI TALIBAN-TALIBAN INTERVIEW

SOURCE-CNN
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The car in front of me is carrying a man at the heart of the Taliban uprising in Pakistan
This has been a carefully orchestrated rendezvous: Secrecy is everything.We arranged for our cars to pass at a designated spot at a turnoff on the outskirts of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad.We slow down, and the other car positions in front of us.We are led down a narrow alleyway and into a non-descript house for a face-to-face interview.This has all been patiently organized by our intermediary, a man known to the militant and trusted by us.But there are always nagging concerns. Some in our car are a little nervous, and that is perfectly understandable, but I am comfortable we have taken every safeguard.The man I finally meet is tall, probably in his mid-to-late 30’s with a heavy black beard. He is wearing a white shawal kameez (traditional Pakistani dress), and he ties a white turban around his head.He is wanted by Pakistani police for terrorism.This is a man who has fought on the front lines both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was a leader of the Red Mosque in Islamabad, the scene of a siege by Pakistan military in 2007 which left more than 100 people dead.We can’t film his face, and we can’t identify him. He tells us we can refer to him only as “Mullah Wajid.”As we begin the interview, at first he won’t meet my eye. When we shake hands he looks slightly away.My cameraman can only film him from behind, and he won’t allow us even to film his hands.Two men stand behind our camera watching every shot. When the interview is over they command us to stop filming immediately.But the interview itself is a surprise. Interviews with Taliban are rare. To have the chance to put questions directly to a man so heavily involved in the insurgency shines a light into a world often closed from us.I expect the usual anti-America diatribe, and there is. He says the U.S and coalition forces must leave Afghanistan, and he wants a return to Taliban rule there.He also criticizes some in Pakistan for being pro-U.S and implementing U.S. foreign policy.

What I wasn’t expecting was his denunciation of other Taliban.He says some in Pakistan have gone too far and are inflicting suffering on ordinary civilians. He says the supreme Taliban leader, Mohammed_Omar" rel=wikipedia>Mullah Omar, has rejected these militants and says they are not “real Taliban.”This is a twist, and it comes after the release of a new Taliban code of conduct. The code says civilian suffering and casualties are to be avoided, urging Taliban to go after “high value” targets like coalition troops and government officials.The Taliban is bogged down in heavy fighting both in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Like any insurgency, if it loses the people, it loses the war.

And now the U.S. and others are seeking out what they call “good Taliban:” moderate militants they can negotiate with.

The Taliban leadership wants to cleanse itself of the rogue elements. It wants to present a disciplined, cohesive force that can’t easily be divided and conquered.

“Mullah Wajid” may be rejecting some hard-liners, but he hasn’t gone soft. He wants nothing less than the U.S. out of all Muslim land.

I ask him if he is prepared to kill and die for his beliefs.“Yes. Inshallah (God willing).”In that he is not so different from other Taliban after all.

Posted by: CNN Correspondent, Stan Grant