[luke warm]

what do you think of obama's plan to negotiate with the taliban?

hopefully not a wingnut site

an interesting part of the article:

"The Taliban, driven from government in a US-led invasion for sheltering Al-Qaeda after the September 2001 attacks, have said they would only agree to negotiations if international troops helping the government pull out."

[matmat]

what the heck is AFP?

i found the American Free Press website, but the logo is totally different and they seem to want to charge for their articles...

[PassedOut]

luke warm, on Mar 9 2009, 07:36 AM, said:

what do you think of obama's plan to negotiate with the taliban?

I'm not sure where you see a "plan to negotiate with the taliban" in the article you cited: Possible talks

Quote

KABUL (AFP) — Afghanistan's president on Sunday welcomed comments by his US counterpart Barack Obama hinting at possible talks with moderate elements of the Taliban.

Hamid Karzai said his government had long supported dialogue with those members of the extremist group not connected with the "terrorists" waging an increasingly bloody insurgency in Afghanistan.

Seems like it would be irresponsible not to try to split the opposition, if it can be done.

[jtfanclub]

Not sure why this is a change. We've been negotiating with the Taliban for about a year now. Basically it comes down to if they'll stop protecting Al Qaeda and other international terrorist types, we'll stop blowing up their weddings- I mean, fighting their troops.

[P_Marlowe]

Hi,

I agree.

"It is very good news that the American president, his excellency Obama, has
backed talks with those Taliban that he termed as moderate."

Exchange Taliban with ..., and you may even get a start at solving other conflicts
as well.

The first important thing is, that you beginn talking, trying to understand, what is
the reason certain thing occurr.
For this you need patience, lots of it, ..., there is a reason, why someone like Martti Ahtisaari was succesful in the past, and other not, he knows,
that to solve a problem, you need to start the talk, and restart the talk, and restart
the talk, time over time.
It is tedious work / boring work, not much rewarding.

With kind regrds
Marlowe

[hrothgar]

luke warm, on Mar 9 2009, 03:36 PM, said:

what do you think of obama's plan to negotiate with the taliban?

hopefully not a wingnut site

an interesting part of the article:

"The Taliban, driven from government in a US-led invasion for sheltering Al-Qaeda after the September 2001 attacks, have said they would only agree to negotiations if international troops helping the government pull out."

NPR had a pretty good segment on this topic a couple weeks back. (It was either on the Diane Reims show or On Point)

Here's a few of the more salient points that I remember:

1. The Taliban is not a monolithic organization. The Taliban is fractured along tribal lines. Many of the local leaders spend lots of time squabling with one another.

2. There is a fair amount of debate within both the US military and the civilian government whether or not we should try to negotiate with elements within the Taliban. This debate preceeded Obama coming to office. (In other words, the US is hardly a monolithic group)

3. Those in favor of negotiation argue that improvements in stablity in Iraq owe much more to negotiations with Sunni tribal leadership than the troop surge.

[hrothgar]

luke warm, on Mar 9 2009, 03:36 PM, said:

hopefully not a wingnut site

Looks like there are a couple different AFPs.

There's the "Agence France-Presse" which I don't know much at all about and the "American Free Press"

The American Free Press looks to be a bunch of "Birchers", which isn't quite the same as wingnuts... (In this case, I suspect that the press clipping came from the Agence France-Presse)

You can find the American Free Press web site at http://www.americanfreepress.net/

Some of the choice articles featured include:

1. Rothschild Agents Take 10 Key Posts In Administration of Rookie President
2. Mossad Link Found To One Of Key 9-11 Hijackers
3. Stats Reaffirm Autism-Vaccine Link
4. London Banking Center at Core of Financial Crisis
5. Israel’s Dirty Secret: Hamas Was Creation Of Zionist Intriguers

[hanp]

That's pretty funny Richard.

[jdonn]

I wonder what others think. I believe I stumbled on a fairly good definition of 'wingnut website' the other day, that being any website claiming to be about the news that covers more of the screen area with ads (other than for it's own shows and products) than with 'news'. The flashier the ads, the more wingnut the website.

[hrothgar]

jdonn, on Mar 9 2009, 08:54 PM, said:

I wonder what others think. I believe I stumbled on a fairly good definition of 'wingnut website' the other day, that being any website claiming to be about the news that covers more of the screen area with ads (other than for it's own shows and products) than with 'news'. The flashier the ads, the more wingnut the website.

A simpliest explanation of the expression "Wingnut" is:

A derogatory expression for right wing web sites characterized by

1. Group think / echo chamber effects
2. Overly simplistic explanations
3. Conspiracy threories

The expression "Moonbat" is the equivalent expression for left wing sites..

[jdonn]

I stand corrected, I simply thought it was synonymous with "nuts".

[hrothgar]

jdonn, on Mar 9 2009, 09:49 PM, said:

I stand corrected, I simply thought it was synonymous with "nuts".

It is said that the Inuit have 60 words for "snow".

Here on the internet, we need at least that many for different types of nuts...