Word: talibanization
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...just posturing? Doesn't Karzai know that without American protection, he could be swinging from a lamppost in Kabul like several of his predecessors?) And as for the argument, made passionately by some in the military, that a specific date for starting the withdrawal is an invitation for the Taliban to lie low until we leave: "They simply won't do that," says Leslie H. Gelb, former president of the Council on Foreign Relations. "If you stand down, you allow the enemy - even this inept Afghan government - to create a bow-wave effect, to create the impression of authority...
...Kandahar. There was the vastly improved human intelligence collection on al-Qaeda, which has resulted in Predator strikes that have killed at least a dozen top terrorist leaders in recent months, according to the military. There was Pakistan's new willingness to go after its indigenous branch of the Taliban, and the continued unwillingness to go after the Afghan Taliban, led by Mullah Omar - an organization created, and still supported, by the Pakistani intelligence services...
...Greg Mortenson's brilliant effort to build schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan comes to mind - or he might have asked Americans to send clothing, or seeds, to the second poorest country in the world. This is a message, a resolute and passionate evocation of national purpose, that the Taliban need to hear as well...
President Obama referred to Pakistan no fewer than 25 times during his West Point speech, stressing that his Afghanistan strategy cannot work without the help of its southeastern neighbor. But he made no mention of another neighbor, whose support was crucial in defeating the Taliban in 2001: Iran...
...Still, the Iranian government has in the past been able to put aside its anti-Americanism to cooperate with the U.S. on Afghanistan. After the 9/11 attacks, Washington and Tehran worked quietly together: Iran had helped train, arm and finance many of the fighters and commanders of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, which worked with the U.S. to overthrow the Taliban and drive out al-Qaeda. James Dobbins, the Bush Administration's first envoy to Afghanistan after 9/11, worked with Iranian officials to set up the post-Taliban government. But relations soured when President George W. Bush balked...