ALL UPSIDE:

Taliban, US in new round of peace talks (Syed Saleem Shahzad, 8/21/07, Asia Times)

The few weeks between the visits to Pakistan of Richard Boucher, the US assistant secretary of state who left last week, and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, who arrives on September 10, could prove crucial in determining the fate of Afghanistan.

This is the timeline for secret three-party talks to establish teega (a Pashtu word for a peace deal that resolves a conflict) between the Western coalition forces in Afghanistan (with Pakistan), the Afghan government, and the anti-coalition insurgents of Afghanistan. The first round of talks has already begun in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, Asia Times Online has learned.

The outcome of the talks will to a large extent decide the agenda of Negroponte's visit and the course of the US-led "war on terror" in the region.

The talks are based on previous Pakistan-inspired efforts to secure peace deals between the insurgents and the Western coalition in specific areas in Afghanistan with the longer-term goal of incorporating the Taliban into the political process both in Kabul and in provincial governments.

The enemy's sole advantage in the WoT lies in being so disorganized/decentralized that they are hard to target effectively. Any measure that makes them more visible and structurally coherent makes them easier to kill. Just in case....

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 20, 2007 12:00 AM