Miliband: Taliban must join Afghan parliament
Foreign Secretary tells Nato peace will only come with inclusive administration
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Independent Minds
Taliban fighters should be persuaded to lay down their arms and take seats in the Afghan Parliament in an effort to build a lasting peace in the country, the Foreign Secretary David Miliband insisted yesterday.
Mr Miliband, in a speech to a Nato conference in Edinburgh, made a fresh attempt to soothe growing public fears that British troops could be bogged down indefinitely fighting the Afghan insurgency, promising: "This in not a war without end."
He said Britain was ready to commit more soldiers to Afghanistan, but stressed military action had to be backed by a lasting political settlement. He argued that most Taliban supporters were not ideologically committed to a global jihad and had to be offered an "alternative to fighting, a route back into society, not just a tougher penalty".
As Gordon Brown announced that Slovakia was sending another 250 soldiers to the country, Mr Miliband argued that the deployment of coalition troops was essential to prevent the Taliban growing in strength.
"I, as much as anyone else, want to bring our troops back home to safety. But we cannot leave a vacuum which the Taliban will quickly fill, and under their umbrella, al-Qa'ida quickly follow.
"Counter-terrorism may deal with symptoms, it brings short-term success. But only a comprehensive strategy can deal with the causes and ensure that when we leave, we do so knowing that we will not have to return."
Mr Miliband set out a three-part strategy for securing Afghanistan's future: building lasting government structures, dividing the insurgency and strengthening the country's relationship with neighbours including Pakistan. The Foreign Secretary suggested that President Karzai's inauguration tomorrow could, despite this year's controversial election, mark a turning point in Afghanistan's history.
He was speaking as coalition members await President Barack Obama's much-delayed decision on how many troops he will commit to a new military surge. Mr Brown has said he wants other Nato members to provide an extra 5,000 troops in addition to the US commitment. Britain has already offered another 500 if other countries follow suit.
The Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, who met Mr Brown for talks in Downing St yesterday, signalled that he would increase its presence in Afghanistan from 250 to 500 soldiers.
Welcoming the announcement, Mr Brown forecast that 10 other countries would also be prepared to boost troop numbers. Anders Rasmussen, Nato secretary-general, also called for more troops to bolster military efforts.
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Comments
Either they go or David Miliband will need to persuade some of the most misogynistic people on this planet to sit down and discuss politics with women!
Either I am mad or the British Foreign Secretary is.
It took Britain hundreds of years after the establishment of a Parliament to give women the vote. Universal suffrage for all adults over 21 years of age was not achieved until 1928.
Women are still hugely under-represented at the "Mother of Parliaments" in 2009.
Yet we are now told the Taliban mullahs are to be persuaded to sit with women in a fledgling Parliament in Afghanistan.
And these people are running our country!
I would not let David Miliband run my local bowling club.
You mean like Malalai Joya, whom Hamid Karzai's fundamentalist warlord pals are trying to kill?
"Either I am mad or the British Foreign Secretary is."
I suspect that yours is a case of plain ignorance with a hint of complacency rather than mental derangement, as is that of Milibananas, who is not insane but such an inveterate liar that he can no longer tell when he has lost all credibility. If you knew anything about the country that your army has ravaged for 8 years, you would know that the Tajik and Uzbek warlords who "liberated" Afghanistan and constitute Karzai's power base are bayonet-raping, sadistic, murderous narco-bandits who are at least as misogynistic as the acid-throwing Gulbuddin Hekmatyar or the worst of the Taliban. In fact Mullah Omar became a Taliban leader precisely because he stood up to these warlords' crimes - particularly against women - and thereby gained the respect of the people.
So the Taliban can be in Parliament.
"But we cannot leave a vacuum which the Taliban will quickly fill"
But the can't be allowed to rule.
What kind of democracy is that?
I see they have got round to the nonsense of good taliban and bad taliban now.
So if the good taliban get elected then what would you do?
How would you explain that we have been here for a decade trying to get rid of the taliban and bring democracy and then they go elect them.
That would be funny.
Whilst i have no great love for any politicians or party, this bunch of useless buffoons need to go and quickly, before they do any damage.
we are truly dealing with a bunch of crooks and charlatans apparently serving the country as politicians !!!!
its time for a major overhaul of the political system as the present one is too corrupt .
They are not entitled to sit in the Commons until they swear an oath to the queen and her descendants.
Get real!
The Afghan government are doing their best to imitate our corrupt politicians but building moats and buying duck houses might be taking things too far.
Taliban rulers were even taken to Texas, where they were wined and dined by congressmen and senators and oil company executives.
When the Taliban refused to sign the Caspian pipeline contract, one year later, they were tagged as terrorists.
United States and Britain are not killing women and children in Afghanistan for democracy or for women's rights, or human rights or anyone else's rights.
They are there for geopolitical control of the region and control of the Caspian pipeline.
Recruit the Taliban into the Afghan parliament? That's like recruiting known paedophiles to work in kinderfgartens!
And the caveat that the Taliban should first disarm and renounce their violent ways is equally delusional; it is not their weapons they need to let go of, but their fanatical, fundamentalist religious beliefs. And how does Miliband expect them to give those up - anti-cult-style deprogramming, antipsychotic drugs, brain surgery?
The Taliban will continue their violent ways as long as they believed that that is what their god wants them to do, and neither Miliband nor anyone else is about to rid them of that deadly delusion.
Miliband should go and bang his head against a wall, hard and repeatedly, until he has either knocked some sense into himself or suffered a fatal brain injury. Etither one would be a result.