Obama relying on 'peace' talks with little chance of success


NY Times:

President Obama’s strategy for gradually ending the war in Afghanistan relies heavily on peace talks with the Taliban. But those talks have hardly begun, and even some administration officials acknowledge that the odds of success are slim.

Among the many reasons: It is not clear that the Taliban want to negotiate, or who even represents the organization. The Afghan president has distanced himself from the talks, raising doubts about whether the country’s leaders would be open to a reprise of Taliban involvement in the political process.

And Pakistan, the vital third leg of negotiations because of its ties to the Taliban, is increasingly a wild card because of recent strains with the United States over the drone assaults on terrorist suspects inside Pakistan.

...
Does this sound like a nutty national security policy to anyone else? Failure seems likely and success seems remote. Most rolls of the dice have better odds of success.

It appears that Obama is looking for a fig leaf to cover a wholesale retreat that could open Afghanistan to our terrorist enemies and again. He appears to be willing to bet our investment on Afghan security with very little hope of any success. It is the most profoundly irresponsible policy since the Democrats blew off the South Vietnamese.

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