Joe Biden is at it again!
Washington, D.C. (AHN) - In Belgium consulting with NATO allies about a new strategy for Afghanistan, Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday said he would support reaching out to moderate members of the Taliban but added that the initiative must ultimately begin from the Afghan government.
Biden held a morning meeting with the North Atlantic Council, the principal forum for NATO's 26 member states, at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels. He assured them that he was there to consult, as part of the Obama administration's 60-day review of American strategy, and not to impose a U.S.-centric view in Afghanistan.
"What we want to learn is what your countries believe are working, what you think is not working, how we can do a better job in stopping Afghanistan and Pakistan from being a haven for terrorists... The deteriorating situation in the region poses a security threat, from our perspective, not just to the United States," he said.
"I want to make it clear to you, from the perspective of the average United States citizen, an attack, a terrorist attack in Europe is viewed as an attack on us. That is not hyperbole because we understand and we view it as an attack on the West. And we view it as a gateway to further attacks on the United States... this is not a U.S.-centric view that only if America is attacked is there a terrorist threat," he added.
In a joint press conference later with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Biden said he agreed that reaching out to the Taliban could prove beneficial. President Barack Obama had said in a New York Times interview last Sunday that the United States was not winning the war in Afghanistan and that alliances with moderate Taliban should be explored.
Biden said, "T[o] paraphrase Secretary Holbrooke, our Special Envoy, and I agree with his assessment after numerous visits to the region and throughout the country -- 5 percent of the Taliban is incorrigible, not susceptible to anything other than being defeated. Another 25 percent or so are not quite sure, in my view, the intensity of their commitment to the insurgency. And roughly 70 percent are involved because of the money, because of them being -- getting paid."
"The idea of what concessions would be made is well beyond the scope of my being able to answer, except to say that whatever is initiated will have to be ultimately initiated by the Afghan government, and will have to be such that it would not undermine a legitimate Afghan government," he added.
Um... Joe... which "moderate taliban" would that be?
KABUL, March 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's proposal to reach out to moderate Taliban will fail to end the Afghan insurgency as it is inflexible Taliban leaders who are orchestrating the war, not moderates, analysts said.
Obama, in an interview with the New York Times newspaper published on its website on Saturday, expressed an openness to adapting tactics in Afghanistan that had been used in Iraq to reach out to moderate elements there.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed Obama's proposal but analysts were doubtful.
"Obama's comment resemble a dream more than reality," said Waheed Mozhdah, an analyst who has written a book on the Taliban.
"Where are the so-called moderate Taliban? Who are the moderate Taliban?" asked Mozhdah, who was an official in both the Taliban and the Karzai governments.
Karzai's pro-Western administration and the growing number of foreign forces in Afghanistan have increasingly come under attack from a resurgent Taliban, with Obama now describing Afghanistan as a top foreign policy priority for his new administration.
"'Moderate Taliban' is like 'moderate killer'. Is there such a thing?", asked writer and analyst Qaseem Akhgar.
Or, as Gateway Pundit puts it:
But, lets be clear... It's only the "moderate elements" of radical Islamist fundamentalist organization that he is interested in appeasing.
Who might that be?
The moderate members who hide women under dark cloaks?
The moderate members who keep women from holding jobs?
The moderate members who burn down barbershops and bomb girl's schools?
The moderate members who believe in Shariah law?
The moderate members who beat women in public?
Nothing they are saying makes an once of sense. On what planet will you find "moderate taliban" ? How can any radical Muslim be considered moderate. I'm disgusted.
ReplyDeleteTalk to women who haven been beaten for learning to read. Or having shoes that make noise. Or giving a 13 yr old girl to a man old enough to be her grandfather as a "wife". Or forbidding a woman the ability to have a job other than begging. Or how about them actually saying that they want to, pretty much, annihilate the entire western world.