Tinder-Box Temperament

NATO soldiers stand with U.S. flag as a Chinook helicopter takes off after a security handover ceremony at a military academy outside Kabul June 18, 2013. PHOTO:REUTERS

"My perspective has always been that this war is going to have to end with political reconciliation, and so I frankly would be supportive of any positive movement in terms of reconciliation, particularly an Afghan-led and an Afghan-owned process that would bring reconciliation between the Afghan people and the Taliban in the context of the Afghan constitution.
"Last week I was responsible for security here in Afghanistan. It's not just a statement of intent, it's a statement of fact."
U.S. Marine General Joseph Dunford

That 'statement of fact' is the simple acknowledgement that the Taliban will not be defeated. Not by the Afghan military, not by the combined ranks of foreign troops fighting under UN- and NATO-combined mandates to defeat the fanatical Islamists who had once ruled the country in their ferociously anti-human-rights sanctimony as mandated by Islamic principles, and who made common cause with al-Qaeda.

It is also a statement expressing relief that the end may yet be in near sight of the wearying necessity of the NATO presence within the country. There are 100,000 foreign troops from 48 countries to be withdrawn. Some 66,000 of those troops Americans. The uncertainty of serving in Afghanistan when at any time a Taliban uniformed as a member of the military can turn his weapons on foreign soldiers is one they can all live without, happily.

Western nations who originally pledged to combat and defeat the Taliban are fed up after twelve years of sacrifice and nothing substantial to show for their efforts other than their grief at losing their own servicemen and women in the costly process. Much treasury has been deposited in Afghanistan to help build civil infrastructure, train a prison and judicial system, along with building health clinics and schools, and training police and the Afghan military.

It is long past time to leave and permit the country to be responsible for its own well-being. The ever-renascent Taliban, remaining intent on restoring Sharia law with their own inimitable brand of cultural heritage demeaning women and leaving children vulnerable to harm will be a matter that Afghanistan will have to deal with. Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks of his "brothers", the Taliban. He must deal with his brothers, the Taliban.

Now, news once again that the Taliban and the U.S. plan to hold talks on a political solution to finalizing an end to the tedious war of wills. "It's good news. We're very pleased with what has taken place", enthused U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. And British Prime Minister David Cameron seconded him, as the country with the second-largest troop contingent in the country.

The Taliban has formally opened an office from which to negotiate with the Government of Afghanistan, in the Qatari capital of Doha. From that tentative first step should come a final agreement between the adversaries and the reaching of shared administration of the country. President Karzai expressed his pleasure at the prospect. Yet this is a man who is famously and controversially peculiar in his abrupt changes of mind.

A day following the announcement of the agreement and the opening of the Doha office, the mercurial President Karzai did one of his turn-abouts. He tersely and angrily suspended security negotiations with the U.S., and deep-sixed a planned peace delegation to the Taliban. And the U.S. administration was beset with another one of their Afghan-inspired blinding headaches. The war will not, if Mr. Karzai has anything to say about it, be resolved so readily as had been hoped, with an agreement between the Taliban leadership and the Afghan government.

It isn't quite known what the catalyst was that provoked Mr. Karzai to such fury. Perhaps the naming by the Taliban of their new office in Qatar, an 'embassy'. Presuming far too much on the basis of not very much. The ribbon-cutting ceremony, the hoisting of the Taliban flag, the banner reading: "Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan".

What interregnum? What war? What dispute? What peace settlement?