[Peace-discuss] Remarkable admission

[C. G. Estabrook]

[After all Obama's scenery-chewing about how we gotta "stop terrorism," the USM 
admits what the world knows: the US is killing people in order to control the 
region, by whatever means, and it will treat "the terrorists" as ally or 
adversary, whichever is easier.  The following is from the front page of today's 
FT. “As a soldier, my personal feeling is that there’s been enough fighting,” 
says the 'Special Forces' commander, chosen for his expertise in death squads 
and assassination.   But he has got down the Obama mantra for excusing US 
crimes: "...focus on the future, and not the past.” --CGE]

	January 24 2010
	Financial Times
	McChrystal sees Taliban role
	By Matthew Green in Kabul

General Stanley McChrystal, the Nato commander in Afghanistan, has raised the 
prospect that his troop surge will lead to a negotiated peace with the Taliban.

Gen McChrystal will urge his allies to renew their commitment to his strategy at 
a conference in London this week.

In a Financial Times interview, he acknowledged growing scepticism about the 
war, but said he was poised to make “very demonstrably positive” progress this 
year as a result of the arrival of an extra 30,000 US troops.

By using the reinforcements to create an arc of secure territory stretching from 
the Taliban’s southern heartlands to Kabul, Gen McChrystal aims to weaken the 
insurgency to the point where its leaders would accept some form of settlement 
with Afghanistan’s government.

“As a soldier, my personal feeling is that there’s been enough fighting,” he 
said. “What I think we do is try to shape conditions which allow people to come 
to a truly equitable solution to how the Afghan people are governed.”

Asked if he would be content to see Taliban leaders in a future government in 
Kabul, he said: “I think any Afghans can play a role if they focus on the 
future, and not the past.”

The remarks reveal the growing faith the US military is placing in the hope that 
a power-sharing arrangement can end the war, a possibility floated in Islamabad 
last week by Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, when he described the 
Taliban as part of Afghanistan’s “political fabric”.

A parliamentary election has been postponed from May to September, pleasing 
diplomats and domestic critics who want time to prevent a repeat of rampant 
fraud that marred the presidential vote last year.

Gen McChrystal’s position is particularly significant since his assessments have 
played a major role in shaping deliberations by Barack Obama, the US president, 
over Afghan policy.

The prospect that an eight-year war could end with some Taliban leaders in power 
represents a remarkable turnround in a campaign launched in part to punish the 
movement for allowing Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaeda leader, to organise the 
September 11 2001 attacks on the US from Afghan territory.

But hopes for reconciliation between the Taliban and the government of Hamid 
Karzai, president, appear remote at a time when the insurgency is growing in 
scope and sophistication and when western resolve is faltering.

Gen McChrystal sees the London conference on Thursday as a key opportunity for 
allies to rally around his ambitious counter-insurgency strategy in spite of a 
70 per cent rise in coalition casualties last year and doubts over the 
credibility of the Afghan government.

He hopes the conference will issue a strong statement backing his plan, which 
hinges on providing enough security to allow the Afghan state to grow. “I’d like 
everybody to walk out of London with a renewed commitment, and that commitment 
is to the right outcome for the Afghan people,” he said.

Second article based same interview with the FT:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/647edfd0-090f-11df-ba88-00144feabdc0.html

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/30b0c4d8-091f-11df-ba88-00144feabdc0.html


-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.