If the UK talks to the taliban is this letting the US down? (Iraq, enemy)

[famenity]

The Cabinet yesterday approved a three-pronged plan that Mr Brown will outline for security to be provided by Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) and the Afghan national army, followed by economic and political development in Afghanistan.

But the intention to engage Taliban leaders in a constructive dialogue, which Mr Brown will make clear in a parliamentary statement today, will be by far the most controversial element of the plan. A senior Downing Street source confirmed the move last night and one Brown aide who accompanied the Prime Minister on his recent visit to Kabul, said: "We need to ask who are we fighting? Do we need to fight them? Can we be talking to them?"

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...cle3244696.ece

How do the people of the US feel about talking to the Taliban, won't we have to talk in the end anyway, will it save lives?

[burdell]

And as a result of the United States military, Taliban no longer is in existence. G W Bush, 9/27/04

Somebody better wake this man up to reality.

[madicarus2000]

Unless they have a gun and are currently shooting at you, how do you tell a Taliban member from any other Afghan citizen?

So talks with the enemy at least give you a better advantage in trying to identify them as opposed to thinking "they look like a Taliban so they must be one."

[oz in SC]

There were talks with the Nazis,the Imperial Japanese,the North Koreans and the North Vietnamese,all during the actual fighting.

[tablemtn]

Didn't the US military cut a bunch of deals (sometimes involving free guns and money) with Sunni militants in Iraq? This is nothing unusual. It's a battle tactic that goes way back into ancient history. The Romans didn't fight everyone they encountered; sometimes they just bribed them into the fold.