A recent (May 2009) face-to-face poll of 3,200 Afghans found a large majority of Afghans want the government to make amends with the Taliban.
Do you think the government should hold talks and reconcile with the Taliban?
Yes: 68% No: 14% Not sure: 18% (link [2])
The results of the poll, commissioned by the International Republican Institute, are not very surprising. A poll two years ago found 60% of the country in favour of negotiations [3] with the Taliban.
A few of the better Western journalists have also reported the general Afghan desire for negotiations. Washington Post journalist Pamela Constable found in her interviews that most Afghans don't want a surge [4], they want a negotiated peace.
Yet, despite Afghan wishes, the surge is on, as 4,000 US Marines have demonstrated with Operation Khanjar, "the first large-scale test of new American tactics and resolve in Afghanistan," (The Guardian) currently underway in Helmand province.
American military officials say they are confident of quick victory which seems to be defined as clearing and holding land which has eluded the control of NATO forces. But some locals are skeptical:
In my opinion these operations won't have any good result. The only thing that will give a good result will be peace talks, talks with the Taliban," Wahdat Khan, a 23-year-old from Helmand, told Reuters television.
Amirollah, from Jalalabad, was blunt in his assessment.
"They haven't come here for Afghans or to take their hand and give them peace," Amirollah, 45, said of the Americans... (Reuters) (link [5])
The operation's problematic aspects don't end there. While military spokespeople spout tactics straight out of prevailing COIN doctrine about needing civilian follow-up to get Afghan buy-in, these troops didn't come prepared for that:
The Afghan army and civilian development workers are conspicuous by their absence in this operation. The state department has not delivered the development specialists it was supposed to send, and their place has been filled temporarily by reservists. Meanwhile, the Afghan army has sold only 500 soldiers, a token presence in what was intended to be a joint operation. (link [6])
And speaking of opinion, Australians have again voiced their opposition to the war [7]. In a recent poll, 49% of Australian respondents opposed their government's recent addition of 450 troops to the war in Afghanistan.
Related:
* BBC: "68% of those questioned said the UK should pull its soldiers out during the next year [8]."
* 54% of Germans want their troops out [9].
* Canadian public still wants their troops out [10].
* Three quarters of Poles oppose war [11].
* 55% of French want out of Afghanistan [12].
* Most Australians oppose Afghan war [13].
Links:
[1] http://rabble.ca/taxonomy/term/1879
[2] http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/afghans_want_reconciliation_with_taliban/
[3] http://stopwarblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/poll-nato-support-plummets-in-south.html
[4] http://stopwarblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/more-troops-wont-help.html
[5] http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP525280.htm
[6] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/02/afghanistan-taliban
[7] http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/australians_reject_new_afghan_deployment/
[8] http://stopwarblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/two-thirds-of-brits-say-troops-out.html
[9] http://stopwarblog.blogspot.com/2007/06/germans-want-their-troops-out-too.html
[10] http://stopwarblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/canadians-say-troops-out-again.html
[11] http://stopwarblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/three-quarters-of-poles-oppose-afghan.html
[12] http://stopwarblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/comme-les-francais-disent-troops-out.html
[13] http://stopwarblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/australians-oppose-afghan-war.html
[14] http://rabble.ca/print/blogs/bloggers/davemarkland/2009/07/afghans-want-peace-not-more-war#comment-1034585
[15] http://sellingphotography101.yolasite.com
[16] http://1dollarebooks.yolasite.com
[17] http://rabble.ca/print/blogs/bloggers/davemarkland/2009/07/afghans-want-peace-not-more-war#comment-1034668
[18] http://rabble.ca/print/blogs/bloggers/davemarkland/2009/07/afghans-want-peace-not-more-war#comment-1035244
[19] http://rabble.ca/print/blogs/bloggers/davemarkland/2009/07/afghans-want-peace-not-more-war#comment-1035773
[20] http://rabble.ca/print/blogs/bloggers/davemarkland/2009/07/afghans-want-peace-not-more-war#comment-1035830
[21] http://rabble.ca/print/blogs/bloggers/davemarkland/2009/07/afghans-want-peace-not-more-war#comment-1036926
[22] http://rabble.ca/user
[23] http://rabble.ca/user/register
A negotiation talk with the Taliban might work, but I think the chances of that happening are very slim. That would be like trying to talk Bin laden out his terrorist ways.
-Nikki-
selling photography 101 [15]
1 dollar ebooks [16]
Nikki: Thank you for your interest, however you may be missing the point. If Afghans want to see negotiations with other Afghans, surely it is not our role to judge the likelihood of success, but to allow them to as they please. That, as I see it, is the whole point of sovereignty and democracy. It is also quite doubtful that outsiders (which I assume we both are) can make predictions of success or failure with any confidence. I am also skeptical of any comparisons between the Taliban (and allied Afghan insurgents) and Osama Bin Laden. Just on the surface, there are many differences between them.
Regards,
Dave M
The President is happy to put the military spending on the national credit card.Canada has spent far too much money fighting a war in Afghanistan rather than using some of those funds to contain and reduce gangs in the country's under-served and priority neighbourhoods.There are even payment plans so you can get an installment payday loan for their family to support their living.
negotiate with the Taliban?.....that would be the foreigners ( Arabs, Pakistanis) who took the country over from the inside and spent several wonderful years beheading women and teachers and destroying schools.......you do not negotiate with terrorists.....to them that is weakness....the only law they understand is strength.....terrorists laugh at pacifism as it makes the job much easier....roll down your shirt collar and bare your neck to them if you dare.
Just a followup to the Taliban negotiation topic....how many of those people in favor of negs do you think really know anything ab out the issue?.....its just so easy and correct to b e against war cause war is bad.....well, here's an interesting bit of info just off the AP wire.....Taliban commanders are paying the families of Pakinstani children as young as 7, 4 thousand dollars to becomre human bombs...this isnt exactly a new idea.....the PLO paid Palistinians to kill themselves and innocent people as well....most of the money came from the West as 'aid' for poor old Yasser and his gang of murderers. So, the Taliban are just another facist islamist grouop standing behind women and children to commit murder. Yah, we should negotiate wkith them.
inthepaint: When a pundit or a newscaster calls the Taliban fascist (as many do) it is a pretty clear indication that they know little of fascism or the Taliban or both. For many reasons, the Taliban are much more decentralized and infinitely less bureaucratic. (They are, of course, an ugly and brutal group, but they differ substantially from fascist states.) And while many western pundits shriek about the Taliban murdering civilians used as human shields or in suicide bombs aimed at western forces, they ignore the fact that Afghans do not see it that way. Increasingly the Afghan population sees ALL dead civilians ultimately as victims of the occupation forces, according to journalists on the ground. That is something that should give us all pause for thought.
As for the PLO, such assertions about the use of aid are, again, common in the mainstream, but have little merit. The PLO's financal workings are not an unstudied area. Loretta Naploleoni has a useful sketch in her Terror, Inc.
As for negotiations, I can only suggest re-reading the original post. It's about Afghans and how they want to go about ending the war. I'd suggest they know a whole lot about what that means and about war as well. And the, again common, point that 'you don't negotiate with terrorists' is really one of history's most common cliches. From the IRA to the PLO, those words have been eaten with regularity.
As for the nature of the Taliban, while Pakistan was involved in their rise and Arabs joined up later, they are in the main an Afghan phenomenon. And that is evidently the basis on which most Afghans want to proceed in their talks with insurgents.
Thank you for your interest
Dave M