Security experts urge reconciliation with insurgents
WASHINGTON — The United States should negotiate with insurgent leaders in Afghanistan to stop fighting — if it can do so from a position of strength, security experts told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday.
The U.S. strategy for the war is back in the spotlight this week after whistleblower website WikiLeaks.org published Sunday what it says are more than 75,000 military and diplomatic reports about Afghanistan filed between 2004 and January of this year.
The documents paint a bleak picture of the 9-year-old war, and have raised questions about operations and the reliability of some U.S. allies in the area.
"There's nothing wrong with negotiating ... but you have to know what you're doing," Dr. David Kilcullen, non-resident senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told the committee.
"And most importantly, you must be negotiating from a position of strength."
The panel met Tuesday for its 12th hearing on U.S. policy on Afghanistan in the past 18 months.
Kilcullen urged the committee to define strength in Afghanistan both in military and political terms. He said a weak or corrupt government there weakens the U.S. position and would complicate efforts to stabilize the
country.
Ryan Crocker, dean and executive professor at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, told the committee a lesson he learned from the U.S. war in Iraq was that the United States must engage with "extremely unpleasant people."
But Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Pakistan, urged the United States to open talks with insurgent leaders on its own terms.
"Reconciliation and reintegration become possible on a large scale when insurgents are no longer sure they are winning," he said.
Yea, we all are aware how smart Phds and Doctors are right???? I think 10 of them just got wasted in Afganistan helping the people. ALL THAT EDUCATION AND 0 COMMON SENSE!!!! HOPE IT WAS WORTH IT GENIUS'
All these smart Phd security experts need to don body armor and get their fat @sses in the field and make a deal with these animals personally, be careful might lose your head over it!!!
Hey! What's with all these stupid Tea Partiers blogging in here with their filthy lingo?Is this what America has become,a nation of warmongers?Give me a break!!!
Give me your neck and will give you a clean break.
That's funny,Phunnie boy.Did I hurt your feelings by any chance???
George Patton. Not at all Phonie Boy you just make me laugh.
Hey Phunnie boy(Onesmallvoice) the way you're dishonoring George Patton is quite uncalled for and I most sincerely wish you'd stop it.Please!
Let it go,Larry.Don't you see that this fool's trying to get a laugh out of life no matter who he hurts?Just ignore him!!!
FU-K ALL OF YOU POSTING HERE!!
yes Fuk them all.
Them all, and their right and left wing creeps.
Don't forget the tea-baggers, frak them too.
Hey Phunnie boy,do cut that Tea Party lingo,please.It just might give me a bad name and I surely don't want that!
You too Blubba Fat @ss. All you terrorist POS, we will get all you beastards!!!
Come on,USMC forever.Are you another Tea Partier,or what???
He is not but i am bring it on.
Phunny boy,if you're going to usurp my name,at least drop that filthy Tea Party lingo!!! It tends to make me look bad.
You don't need any help with that.
All military are killers, in the military you are fair game to be killed just as you have signed up to be a killer, no military, no wars!
PS:Please read the 4th line as "the whole problem is Pakistan" instead of "the whole is Pakistan".Thanks.
To solve the Afpak problem,talks can be held, but the real solution is Indo/Pak/Bangladesh joint approach.It is OLD INDIA and Af was also once its part.It broke away from India in the waning days of Mugal Empire.The best way is to form a joint mechanism to administer the region.Indo/Pak can solve the problem and create conditions for peaceful/honourable withdrawal of troops.The whole is Pakistan which wants to annex Afganistan.This is just impossible.Both will have to learn to live in peace.Durand Line must be respected;true, that people are the same on both sides of the line.This same situation persists in Punjab where Redcliff Line divides the Indian and Pakistani Punjabs.These lines can be made soft borders, but they cannot be totally erased as they are international borders now.Only mutual understanding and good relations between govts.can create order and harmony and make them soft.Al Qaeda has found and established home there; this will have to go as they pose a threat to the world and our civilisation/values etc.The only way out is Kabul/Islamabad/Delhi/Dhaka joint approach.Pakistan must come back to the over all culture of "INDIA", away from Arabism.
We are only learning from the masters (Pakistan)
India's Pustun's and Pakistan's Taliban fighters for the future of the poor and impoverished Afghanistan nation and people. When in the hell are the two principle players India and Pakistan going to be 'asked' to sit down and forge some kind of agreeable treaty between their cold war nations which would greatly benefit the Afghanistan people that are being killed, bombed and harassed every single day over a proxy war between Pakistan and India.
Say's you buddy.
Afghanistan is only 40% pashtoon taliban and falling. the bullies are being held up to the light and seen to be wanting.
Hello,Phunnie boy.It's about time we heard from you spewing all that right-wing crap under someone else's name.Please stop usurping mine.Thank you.
Don't let him get your goat,Bubba.He's only trying to get a laugh out of life.I expect him to usurp my name sooner or later in order to vomit his right-wing crap here on this webb site!
Been there and done that what else do you expect dumbo.
We are in no position to be negotiating. Number one we are not currently in a position of strength. Number two, "religious killers", terrorists, holy fighters, whatever you want to call them, cannot be trusted. They are stuck in their ways, and no one is going to change their minds. They'd rather die. Not saying that they won't hold negotiations, but how can we trust a word they say, really?
Your condition can be treated, unfortunately only by manual strangulation.
You again,Phunnie boy(Onesmallvoice) vomitting your right-wing ignorance under somebody else's name.Isn't this starting to get a little old???
I understand your worry, but I see to blind hatred. After the end of Comunism the US policy made a big mistake. A new mondoal order was evocated wich was an aggressive policy that had the 9/11 as consequence. Blame your politicians that made a brain wash to young ganerations and used them improperly. This is not the time to be patriotic, but vigilant.
You are making the same mistake Italian people did before the WWII. When I hear some rhetoric for war... it looks like Mussolini rhetoric.
Yabba-Dabba-Doo!
Does the foreigners you refer to include Pakistanis? if so i am all behind you.
I would shoot the retard who suggested this Cowardly Act. YOU CAN'T REASON WITH RELIGIOUS KILLERS. MUST BE A DEMOCRAP IDEA!!!!!
Ryan Crocker – Dean of George Bush School of Government and Public Service.
Yeah, he must be a (D).
But you definitely are a (R)etard.
And Mr./ Dean who is supposed to be so smart with your liberal BS. What experience do YOU bring to the table in dealing with these people. I have 2 tours in Afganistan working with these people and 1 tour in Iraq. Sir what do you have. Probably sitting your fat @ss at your school desk drinking your coffee, eh fatboy???? I love you college smart@sses with your pathetic liberal views. You should just shut the FU and continue your liberal face running.
And Mr./ Dean who is supposed to be so smart with your liberal BS. What experience do YOU bring to the table in dealing with these people. I have 2 tours in Afganistan working with these people and 1 tour in Iraq. Sir what do you have. Probably sitting your fat @ss at your school desk drinking your coffee, eh fatboy???? I love you college smart@sses with your pathetic liberal views. You should just shut your piehole and continue your liberal face running.
And Mr./ Dean who is supposed to be so smart with your liberal BS. What experience do YOU bring to the table in dealing with these people. I have 2 tours in Afganistan working with these people and 1 tour in Iraq. Sir what do you have. Probably sitting your fat rectum at your school desk drinking your coffee, eh fatboy???? I love you college smart anuses with your pathetic liberal views. You should just shut your piehole and continue your liberal face running.
USMC forever,will you get that stupid right-wing lynch-mob mentality of yours?You sound like an English speaking Nazi!
Don't worry about it USMC Forever, we ended up in this WAR because of DUMB@****S like this DEAN of the DISABLED.
Civilians like this are dime a dozen and not worth S**T. They need to put on body armor get their overwieght @****s out in the field and see what is happening instead of running their worthless mouths. ONLY A COWARD AND MORON WOULD GIVE WAY TO TERRORISTS. WHAT A BUNCH OF MANGINAS!!!!!
Come on,Killa the Thrilla.Have you no sense of decency at all?Besides,what about those cowardly butchers who operate those cursed drone aircraft slaughtering many innocent people? Don't you think that they should be brought to justice?I certainly do!!!
Thats because you Jerry are a terrorist yourself. Their is NO DECENCY about a suggestion to make deals with terrorists. If this is the logic heck we should make deals with murderers in prison and not waste our tax dollars. Man you Democraps are stupid and sorry when it comes to WAR. I don't think in any WAR a Democrap has ever won one, just Start them and lose them all like Vietnam. Thats OK America, the Elections are coming and Obama and his motley crew are GONE!!!!!!!!!
That's because Obama sold out to the MIC(military-industrial-complex),but the problem is that the people who'll replace him and his motley crew won't be any better,just another bunch of right-wing thugs elected by Tea Party members!