Word: afghanistan
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...Speaking in Pakistan on Jan. 22, Defense Secretary Robert Gates described the Taliban as part of Afghanistan's "political fabric," dispelling any notion that the movement - no matter how noxious - can be eliminated by force of arms. And General Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander on the ground, told the Financial Times in an interview published on Monday that "a political solution ... is the inevitable outcome" and "the right outcome" of the surge of 30,000 new U.S. troops into Afghanistan this year. "As a soldier," McChrystal said, "my personal feeling is that there's been enough fighting. What I think...
...while Mullah Omar has lately been promising that a Taliban regime would not threaten the security of any other state in the world (translation: no sanctuary for al-Qaeda), he and those around him insist that there can be talks only when Western armies agree to leave Afghanistan. And, of course, the Taliban leaders believe they have the wind at their backs, while the U.S. is reaching for an exit strategy. U.S. officials insist the insurgents won't be interested in compromise as long as they believe they can win on the battlefield...
...last week that it has no intention of going after the Afghan insurgent sanctuaries in North Waziristan. The Pakistanis claimed that their forces were overstretched by their offensives against the Pakistan Taliban in Swat and South Waziristan and that a new offensive is beyond their capability. (See pictures of Afghanistan's dangerous Korengal Valley...
...officials over the past year have failed to persuade Pakistan to adopt Washington's view that the Afghan Taliban are a menace to Pakistan. Instead, Pakistan continues to see its primary security challenge as emanating from India, which it views as the power behind the Karzai government in Afghanistan. So right now, the Afghan Taliban and associated Afghan insurgent groups based in Pakistan are seen as Pakistan's best hope for rolling back Indian influence and regaining some of the strategic influence lost when the Taliban were routed...
...Kabul are openly calling for such talks, urging the Afghan government to enable them by having the names of a number of senior Taliban leaders taken off a U.N. terrorist-watch list so they can travel. Turkey is even offering to broker regional peace talks involving the Taliban and Afghanistan's neighbors. (See pictures of the presidential election in Afghanistan...