Afghanistan

[Lamplighter]

The U.S. glass is half-full... and it's a start that has to happen sometime.

Reuters
Missy Ryan
Feb 16, 2012

Afghan peace push brings rare chance, risks, for U.S.

(Reuters) - If all goes as hoped, U.S. and Qatari negotiators will meet soon
to nail down final details for transferring Taliban prisoners from Guantanamo prison
- a momentous step for President Barack Obama, the Afghan war and perhaps U.S. foreign policy as well.

Should U.S., Afghan and Qatari officials reach agreement, the Obama administration's
careful diplomatic choreography then calls for the Afghan Taliban to open an office in Qatar
to conduct peace talks with the Western-backed Afghan government.
The Taliban would be expected to make a statement condemning international terrorism.

And at some point - exactly when is unclear - the United States would start sending
the first of five senior Taliban members it has held for a decade to Qatar.

On the way to the first-ever peace negotiations to end the long and
bloody Afghan war, much could go wrong - indeed much already has.
The peace talks have been beset by fits and starts, and U-turns,
and there is a good chance that even these initial good-faith measures won't ultimately come off.
<snip>
"Two years ago the hope at the Pentagon was that we were going to
defeat these guys so seriously they would no longer be a military force.
No one expects that to happen anymore," said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA and
White House official who chaired Obama's 2009 review of Afghan policy.

The article goes on to discuss some of the history of dealing with the Taliban.