June 20th, 2011
05:03 PM ET

Experts: Taliban talks will be tough

A day after Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the United States is in preliminary talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan to quell the violence, experts say don't expect miracle results.

Michael O'Hanlon, a national security expert at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution, said negotiating with "Taliban Central" will be difficult, especially because of the hard-core ideology espoused by Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar and the powerful Haqqani network.

An effective strategy the U.S. and its allies can employ is reaching out to local insurgents, O'Hanlon said.

FULL STORY
Post by:
Filed under: Afghanistan • Taliban • Uncategorized • World
soundoff (14 Responses)
  1. Richard Mills

    REPORT FEDERAL CORRUPTION

    SAVEUSA
    http://www.Facebook.com/SAVEUSA

    June 20, 2011 at 5:19 pm | Report abuse |
  2. WritersWithCats

    Not sure what the talks will really be about. It's quite simple – either the Taliban disperses and stops murdering or the world will exterminate them. That sound about right to everyone else? Pretty clean cut and dried to us.

    June 20, 2011 at 5:58 pm | Report abuse |
  3. banasy

    I'm very pleasantly surprised at the fact that there any peace talks at all. I only hope that these talks will long last produce a very badly needed peace in that country. It is soarly needed. I know that a lot of right-wing fanatics will get quite upset over it. Well, let them!!!!!!!

    June 20, 2011 at 7:30 pm | Report abuse |
  4. Jazzzzzzzz

    Is that you banasy?

    June 20, 2011 at 8:17 pm | Report abuse |
  5. leeintulsa

    There will be no peace. Even when there was peace, there was no peace. All Afghanistan has going for it are poppies.. And no one wants them.. Legally.. We need to walk away

    June 20, 2011 at 8:52 pm | Report abuse |
  6. Joey Isotta-Fraschini

    @ Jazzzzzzzz:
    No, that was not banasy: she can spell "sorely," and I'm surprised that the troll didn't, or even couldn't. Perhaps he was mocking banasy.

    June 20, 2011 at 9:04 pm | Report abuse |
    • Jazzzzzzzz

      Sorry to inform you Joey but that wasn't me either. I've been playing with my knew phone trying to get use to doing the key pad with my thumbs. I had a (number pad) before and went faster. Grrrrrr O-well this one has a lot more options. I'll get use to though. 🙂

      June 20, 2011 at 9:30 pm | Report abuse |
  7. Joey Isotta-Fraschini

    Somebody else posted "soarly" (sic) today. I think it was one of the denial-drenched drug addicts who were telling me how old I must be.
    I don't think of myself as "old" at all: I'm 115 years young.

    June 20, 2011 at 9:09 pm | Report abuse |
  8. Joey Isotta-Fraschini

    I'm going to ask the nurses to figure out my date of birth again. Can I reach this cord...no...the diaper's wet...
    Let's see if I can do it...was I born in–20...no, 115 minus 11 is 4...
    I was born in (about) 1896.
    That's right.

    June 20, 2011 at 9:15 pm | Report abuse |
  9. Joey Isotta-Fraschini

    Was I born in 1896?
    'Bout then.
    I guess.

    June 20, 2011 at 9:17 pm | Report abuse |
  10. bobcat2u

    The Taliban representatives will tell the US whatever it is they want to hear, just to get us out of their country. Once our forces are gone, it will be as it always was. But if the US wants to make a really smart move, get our warriors out of the place we should have been in the first place.

    June 20, 2011 at 10:08 pm | Report abuse |
  11. Jazzzzzzzz

    Joey,I really do wish the trolls would be blocked by CNN. Do you think it will ever happen? The thought of you or banasy never posting again scars me. I hope you two stay here for a long long time.

    June 20, 2011 at 11:54 pm | Report abuse |
  12. saywhat

    Sure after a decade and 120 billion dollars down the drain, 1600 American fallen soldiers and counting this is the right thing to do.
    There is one little thing though? Why couldn't we think of this say 5 years earlier & save tens of thousands of lives? Or when Taliban offered to hand over Osama Bin Laden to us if we could provide evidence that he was behind 9/11 attacks?? Well we do not have the evidence but we could have manufactured something.

    June 21, 2011 at 11:05 am | Report abuse |
  13. joe

    @saywhat: No amount of evidence would've been sufficient for the Taliban, indeed there are some Americans that don't believe he had anything to do with it, such as Charlie Sheen.

    June 21, 2011 at 2:46 pm | Report abuse |
« Back to main