Top Afghan negotiator optimistic over peace prospects: That is peace Afghan style

highlights: Pakistan Frees Former Taliban Officials to Promote Afghan Peace, Top Afghan negotiator optimistic over peace prospects, Afghan officials say that the next phase of transferring security from NATO to Afghan control will begin in two months and aims to cover nearly 90 percent of the country's population, The Afghan government has hit a grim record in its quest to take over the country’s security from coalition forces: more than 1,000 soldiers died in 2012, a roughly 20 percent increase from 2011.

 Pakistan Frees Former Taliban Officials to Promote Afghan Peace: Those freed from detention included Abdul Bari, former governor of southern Helmand province, ex-justice minister Nooruddin Turabi, and Mullah Daud Jan, former governor of Kabul, the foreign office said in a statement last night. U.S. forces ousted the Taliban government led by Mullah Mohammad Omar in 2001. Omar is believed is based in Pakistan. Former deputy leader and top military commander Abdul Ghani Baradar, detained in 2010 in Karachi, was not among those released. 

Afghanistan and Pakistan are pursuing a new peace initiative that would permit members of the Taliban to be removed from the United Nations terrorist list to join negotiations and hold Afghan government posts. The push for talks has become more urgent as the U.S.-led international coalition prepares to pull its combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014. 

 Top Afghan negotiator optimistic over peace prospects: He predicted the highly lethal Haqqani militant network, the most experienced at guerrilla warfare, would join the peace process if the Afghan Taliban started formal talks. Signs are emerging that the Afghan government is gaining momentum in its drive to persuade the Taliban to lay down their arms before most NATO combat troops pull out by the end of 2014, a timeline that makes many Afghans nervous. 

"I think one consensus was that everybody acknowledged that nobody will win by military (means)," said Stanekzai, who was badly wounded in a 2011 Taliban suicide bombing attack. "Everybody acknowledged that we have to enter into a meaningful negotiation." Pakistan, long accused of supporting Afghan insurgents such as the Taliban, has sent the strongest signals yet that it will deliver on promises of helping the Kabul government and the United States bring stability to its neighbor. Pakistan is seen as critical to the process after three decades of upheaval in Afghanistan.

 Afghans: Next force transition starts in 2 months: Afghan officials say that the next phase of transferring security from NATO to Afghan control will begin in two months and aims to cover nearly 90 percent of the country's population. The transition, which began in early 2011, is slated to give Afghan forces full responsibility for security by the end of 2014 when most NATO troops will have withdrawn.

 Afghan Troop Deaths Rise as Army Expands Its Role: The Afghan government has hit a grim record in its quest to take over the country’s security from coalition forces: more than 1,000 soldiers died in 2012, a roughly 20 percent increase from 2011. 

Though the Afghan Army’s death rates have outstripped those for international forces in recent years, the new figures show the widest margin yet, as more and more Afghan units have taken the field. International forces were reported to have lost about 400 soldiers in 2012, the lowest number since 2008. 

 Bullet-riddled bodies of 9 militants found dumped on road in northwest Pakistan: Pakistani intelligence officials say they have found the bodies of nine militants dumped in the North Waziristan tribal region. The militants' bodies were found one day after 21 tribal police personnel who had been abducted were found dead in another tribal region.The incidents illustrate the conflicts among warring factions and militants that plague Pakistan. 

Mullah Omar was invited to join the upcoming election in 2014 and he did not respond. He did not have to he knows when we are gone so is corrupt Karzai. I remember during the election with Abdullah and Karzai's victory was found to be grossly corrupt the people just shrugged and said one corrupt Government is the same as the next.

That said, the people would be wise to remember the cutting off of heads and hands that is routine for the Taliban and how stifling it is under their rule. As a whole they should remember the thousands of them the Taliban have purposely killed. They should form Lashkar's (civilian defense against the Taliban) and eliminate the Taliban or life as they want it is over.

Afghans fear what will happen when troops leave: Among Afghans around the country interviewed by The Associated Press, the worry is pervasive. Many are deeply skeptical that Afghan police and security forces, which the U.S.-led coalition has spent years trying to build, will be able to fight insurgents and militants without American and NATO fighting alongside. Worse-case scenarios that some fear:

 The Afghan forces could splinter along ethnic line and prompt civil war, the nation could plunge into a deep recession, or the Kabul government — plagued with corruption and still fragile despite efforts to establish its authority — would remain too weak to hold off a Taliban takeover. Just a 45-minute drive south of Kabul, residents of Wardak province directly feel the tenuousness. The province is a battleground for Afghan and coalition forces trying to squash hotbeds of the Taliban. Residents quickly warn visitors that it’s dangerous just to go past a checkpoint less a kilometer (half-mile) outside the provincial capital, Maidan Shahr.

In Afghanistan, Businesses Plan Their Own Exits: America may be struggling to come up with a viable exit plan for Afghanistan, but Abdul Wasay Manani is sure of his. This month, Mr. Manani, 38, flew to India for 14 days to scout out a new business, and a new home, ready to leave Afghanistan and everything he worked to build here, just in case things fall apart when most Americans and other foreign troops leave in 2014. “If the Taliban come like last time, ordering people around with whips, I can’t stay here,” he said. “I have to leave this country to keep my family safe.”

 Many Afghans share his concern. In this environment, troubling indicators are not hard to find. More than 30,400 Afghans applied for asylum in industrialized nations in 2011, the highest level in 10 years and four times the number seeking asylum in 2005. The only Western bank operating here said on Wednesday that it would be leaving. Piles of cash equaling about a quarter of Afghanistan’s annual economic output were physically carried out of Afghanistan last year.


I just do not get it. If those people know how bad their life is going to be under the Taliban then why do they not fight to defeat them? *Vietnam all over again regardless of what they say. They are now offering the Taliban to join in the Government.

I really do not care what they do. Our soldiers did their job. We should get them out now with heads held high for a job well done. They have performed magnificently.The Taliban are going to take over again regardless and the people know it that is why everyone who can is making preparations to get out now.


James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com