From CNN:
A 14-year-old girl who was awarded Pakistan’s first National Peace Prize for her online diary reporting on the Taliban’s ban on education was shot on her way home from school today. The Taliban claimed responsibility.
How the hell do you negotiate with them when they start with “Its our way or we will kill you?”
We are far too civilized today, we have weak stomachs. When an enemy is a clear and present danger with no foreseeable solution the answer is very clear what to do.
You don’t negotiate. The whole pretense of negotiating is only on because there aren’t any politicians with the fucking balls to just pull us out of that abortion.
It’s the opposite, actually: there are negotiations because the U.S. can’t stay in Afghanistan forever and at some point someone has to try to run the country.
Well, that’s a reason the US may not need to be involved in any negotiations, but I think it behooves the Afghan government to negotiate for a few reasons:
So if you want to see the end of the Taliban, history advises us we should attempt to find some common political ground rather than trying to fight them militarily. Yes, it’s very easy to write all of these people off as monsters (although many of them are), but it doesn’t mean they are not, at their core, rational actors on some level. By negotiating, you have a much better chance of a sustained, peaceful outcome.
Taliban will not negotiate in good faith, and is incapable of negotiating
in good faith. It will settle for nothing less than status quo ante, win or perish,
and anything else they say is a lie.
The best result would be a near-future native Afghani governement capable
of withstanding the inevitable onslaught without the aid 10s of thousands of
foreign soldiers. I doubt this is in the offing.
The worst result would be a return to power by Taliban. That would be a tremendous
victory for the international movement of Islamic nightcreatures who are our
mortal enemies no matter what we do.
The intermediate result would several more decades of foriegn presence, if that
is how long it takes to last the nightcreatures out. I fear we may not have the will
to preform this option. If not, and if Taliban wins, then look for a radicalization
of the entire Muslim world:
*If these brethren tribesmen can defeat America, **then **the rest of us can seize *
*the world if we but follow their ruthless and uncompromising example. *
Why?
It isn’t our country. I doubt that they are going to saddle up and invade the US, and they can’t interfere with our [waterborn] shipping.
Realistically the only reason to fuck around in someone’s country is if they are a military hazard to us, and honestly an assortment of terrorists is not actually that much of a danger. We can reasonably easily keep them out of the country by barring immigration and other visas. We can shoot them out of hand if they pop up in our country without a valid visa [OK we can deport them if they are not doing anything criminal, and if we catch them doing something they shouldn’t be doing then shoot them.]
Frankly, if we just started shooting the criminal element of the illegal aliens we catch instead of bothering to deport them, might keep the criminal element of the illegals away. Behave, you live, start robbing and killing, die.
Why is it in the U.S.’ interest for there to be a stable government in Afghanistan? Take a look at a history of the country over the last 20 years and I bet you’ll figure it out.
Why do some people always seem to imply that negotiation is weakness? Entering negotiations does not mean capitulation. Just because an FBI agent starts talking on a bullhorn to a hostage taker doesn’t mean the police are folding like paper.
In the real world, there are very little downsides to negotiations. Even if an agreement can’t be concluded, there may be concessions along the way that make negotiations worth it – like the hostage taker releasing women and children, or something. Plus those concessions may be gained without you losing anything significant.
I defy anyone to say that Winston Churchill didn’t have big brass balls. And what was Churchill’s position on negotiating with bad guys? “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.”
The problem is that we don’t have anything the Taliban wants. You could say they want us out of Afghanistan and to stop killing them in Pakistan, but they’re actually benefitting from the war.
If two people negotiate, there’s obviously something that each person wants. That does not mean that each party knows what the other party’s interests really are at the outset.
That’s not a wise way to negotiate. This isn’t friendly situation. It’s not that things can’t arise out of negotiation that weren’t considered before hand, but you have to start negotiations from a position of strength, and we don’t have that.
Two part question: was the Taliban in power in Afghanistan in 2001, and is it in power now?
Yes, and yes.
You make that part of what you’re negotiating for. You tell the Taliban you want them to stop killing innocent civilians. We’ll offer to stop launching drone attacks against their bases. But if they kill another civilian, we’ll resume our drone attacks.
Like Ravenman said, negotiating isn’t surrendering.
So you don’t believe in any negotiation, ever, about anything, with anyone.
No. I said nothing of the kind. I believe in entering negotiations from a position of strength. I don’t see the point of negotiating and coming out with the short end of the stick. We could do that without negotiating. Negotiation is an adversarial process, not hugs and kisses.
Someone’s always going to want to wait for a position of strength. Therefore, no negotiations.
You don’t seem to understand negotiations. It’s not a fair process. You want the other side to think you are weak and enter into the negotiations. Rational people can negotiate from a stalemate, but we’re talking about the Taliban here.
You don’t seem to understand negotiations. It’s not a fair process. You want the other side to think you are weak and enter into the negotiations. Or to think they are weak and believe they will benefit as a result. If it was as easy as you seem to believe we wouldn’t have most of the world’s problems right now. Rational people can negotiate from a stalemate, but we’re talking about the Taliban here.