Marine commander in Afghanistan has secret meetings with Taliban

Sunday Telegraph:

Sitting in the spartan parlour of the governor of Sangin's office, Lieutenant Colonel Tom Savage waits for his opposite number in the Taliban to turn up for tea.

Fittingly, perhaps, for a man whose day job is killing Lt Col Savage's fellow US Marines, the insurgent leader will only ever meet at night, and even then, it is a cloak-and-dagger affair.
Shortly after 9pm, there is a crunch of gravel in the fortified compound outside, and in walks a figure swathed in black save for a slit for his eyes.

He peels off his veil with theatrical flair, greets the Colonel, and over a dinner of stew and rice, the two discuss the one thing that both badly want, but neither can deliver alone - peace.

"I have talked to three different local Taliban commanders, and this particular one is a pretty respected guy," said Lt Col Savage, who says they may well have killed his own men, and almost certainly some of the British whom the Marines inherited part of southern Afghanistan from last year.

"But he's tired of fighting, and if he lays down his weapons he could have a significant effect around here. I have to put aside what he may have done in the past, and think about what he can do in the future."

Shrouded in secrecy and fraught with mutual mistrust, it is meetings like these that the West hopes may finally achieve what nearly a decade of military intervention, billions in aid and thousands of troops' lives has not yet done - a lasting accommodation with the Taliban that will one day enable Col Savage and every other foreign soldier in Afghanistan to leave for good.

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There is more.

At this point the Taliban is a defeated force. Whether they will stay defeated after we leave is an open question that apparently the Marines are trying to get an answer to. If we do not leave too soon we can keep these guys from winning.