Afghan govt to lure Taliban to switch sides

[laststeamtrain]

Source: AP/Seattle PI

Last updated January 12, 2010 12:19 p.m. PT
Afghan govt to lure Taliban to switch sides

By DEB RIECHMANN AND KATHY GANNON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS

KABUL -- The Afghan government is crafting a plan to offer jobs, vocational training and other economic incentives to tens of thousands of Taliban foot soldiers willing to switch sides after eight years of war.

Officials hope the multimillion-dollar initiative, which would reach out to 20,000 to 35,000 low- to mid-level Taliban insurgents, will succeed where past programs have failed. Skeptics, though, wonder whether significant numbers of militants will stop fighting when they believe they're winning.

"If this works, it is the turning point in the war," said Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, a top adviser to President Hamid Karzai, who has promoted the idea of national reconciliation and has even offered to talk with the Taliban's top leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Afghan officials insist their program will be different from one in Iraq where entire platoons of Sunni insurgents who were shooting at U.S. forces one day were paid salaries the next to turn away from al-Qaida and join local security groups under American supervision.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/national/1104ap_as_afghan_switching_sides.html

[Bigmack]

1. It was called the ...

Chieu Hoi program in Vietnam. Same idea. Perfect for bringing the other side into your ranks to fuck you up internally.

Jeeezus... can anybody in D.C. read history? Can't anybody there see the path we're taking?

Vietghanistan.

On the other hand... if the Afghanis - or the US - could get those guys laid, and maybe get some porn and all the other shit that rots the Western mind into their hands, maybe we could win their crotches, if not their hearts and minds.

[saigon68]

2. Been There Done that

It sure worked swimmingly in the past didn't it? --- !!!




"Tombe sans croix et sans chapelle, sans lys d'or, sans vitraux d'azur, quand le peuple en parle, il l'appelle le Mur." - Joules Jouy

"Tomb without a cross or chapel, or golden lilies, or sky blue church windows, when the people talk about it, they call it The Wall." - Joules Jouy

[bemildred]

3. "If this works, it is the turning point in the war"

And if it doesn't work, it's more empty babble, just like it was before.