ISI offers to broker talks with Taliban

CNN:

Pakistan's military has declared that not only is it in contact with Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar but that it can bring him and other commanders to the negotiating table with the United States.

The acknowledgment of on-going communication with Taliban forces using sanctuary in Pakistan to launch military strikes against U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan is part of a new diplomatic overture to help the Obama administration find an end to the long-running conflict.

In a CNN exclusive interview, Pakistan military spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said in return for any role as a broker between the United States and the Taliban, Pakistan wants concessions from Washington over Islamabad's concerns with longtime rival India.

And senior U.S. officials have told CNN the Obama Administration is willing both to talk to top Taliban leaders and to raise some of Pakistan's concerns with India.

With NATO's Afghan force commanders conceding the military fight against the Taliban in key areas of Afghanistan is at a "stalemate" and that a recent influx of American combat troops is hoped to break the deadlock, the consensus among military and diplomatic figures in the region is that the United States cannot win the war in Afghanistan militarily.

Most believe a resolution to the conflict will ultimately be a political, and economic, one rather than a military victory that will necessitate negotiations with the Taliban. Such a resolution will have to be struck with the involvement of Pakistan, India, Iran and possibly Saudi Arabia, as well as NATO and the United States.

And with the Pakistan military, with its intelligence service, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI), now going public with its offer to act as broker to help initiate talks, this could be the first opportunity for a breakthrough in ending the Afghan war that began with the U.S. invasion in 2001.

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I think little of value could come from such talks and much mischief could result. To start with, it is hard to credit the ISI as an honest broker in such talks since they have been duplicitous throughout the current conflict. Then there is the fact that Pakistan's own negotiations with the Taliban have led to disastrous agreements that the Taliban have not honored. Attempts at having a political solution with people of bad faith help only those of bad faith. There only value is a barely face saving way of retreat. There is no example of the Taliban acting in good faith with any of these agreements.

To enter such negotiations now when we are implementing a strategy that is kicking the Taliban butt out of Helmand makes little sense.

The old canard about getting a political solution to the dispute has been proven wrong in Iraq and will be proven wrong in Afghanistan. Political solutions in Afghanistan can only be achieved after the destruction of the Taliban and al Qaeda.