National Security Online Resource Center

Should we negotiate with the Taliban? President Obama pondered negotiation early last year but instead decided to scale up its efforts against the group. Now Ahmed Rashid, one of the foremost scholar-journalists on the Afghan conflict, has suggested that America may have no other choice. A similar solution is proposed by George Gavrilis in the recent issue of Foreign Affairs where he argues that a less intrusive, less idealistic solution is the way to go in Afghanistan.

The politically accommodating solution is attractive (especially to a transactional president like Obama) but not always successful. Nixon bombed Vietcong to the peace table but South Vietnam fell a couple of years later. This is essentially Obama’ s strategy – weaken the Taliban and then negotiate. Obviously the situation in Afghanistan is different from Vietnam. The country is far more fragmented and a political reconciliation with the Taliban unavoidable given the growing unpopularity of the war. However, we must not forget about the commitment of freedom and democracy we made to the Afghan people. Rights of women are going to roll back and the country is likely to return to an increasingly autocratic/Islamist regime. Even if democracy is maintained, it will be marred by corruption and another civil war started by the loosers is not out of the question.

So whats the solution? You tell me.