Clinton defends talks with Taliban

Muhammad Tauseef A. Bajwa

Senator (1k+ posts)
Clinton defends talks with Taliban
By AFP
Published: April 15, 2011
hillary-clinton-REUTERS-640x480.jpg


U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a memorial service for the late U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke at the American Academy in Berlin April 15, 2011. PHOTO: REUTERS

BERLIN:
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday voiced understanding for talks with the Taliban as she mourned late diplomat Richard Holbrooke, an avid proponent of reconciliation in Afghanistan.

At a memorial service, Clinton credited Holbrooke who died unexpectedly at the age of 69 in December with setting the troubled US relationships with Pakistan and Afghanistan on the right track as special envoy to the countries.

Those who found negotiations with the Taliban distasteful got a very powerful response from Richard diplomacy would be easy if we only had to talk to our friends, Clinton said at the American Academy in Berlin, which was co-founded by Holbrooke, a former ambassador to Germany.

And negotiating with your adversaries wasnt a disservice to people who had died, if by talking you could prevent more violence, Clinton said.
Holbrooke was seen as the main force in President Barack Obamas administration seeking a political deal in Afghanistan, despite calls by conservatives and the military to try to crush the Taliban insurgency.

Obama has tripled the number of troops in Afghanistan to around 100,000 but his administration has also increasingly signalled it does not believe there is a military solution to the conflict.

Clinton, while supporting the diplomatic push, made clear in talks Thursday with NATO foreign ministers that the United States would stay committed militarily in Afghanistan well beyond a July drawdown date originally set by Obama.

http://tribune.com.pk/story/150144/clinton-defends-talks-with-taliban/
 

student

Senator (1k+ posts)
when we talk with Taliban, they call us supporters of terrorists... now what should we call them?
 

kashmiri

MPA (400+ posts)
when we talk with Taliban, they call us supporters of terrorists... now what should we call them?
Offcourse they not only call us they make us fool
I do not know why our nation (locals) consider western interest while taking their own decisions.
Its ok for Gov and Deffence establishments as they belongs to them but why a local one
 

karachiwala

Prime Minister (20k+ posts)
What a hypocrite when it is in US interest lets just talk if it is any one else's interest, then you are talking to the enemy. What about Bush who said either you are with us or with the enemy??
 

Muhammad Tauseef A. Bajwa

Senator (1k+ posts)
Afghan security forces will be ready to take control by 2014: Lt General Caldwell

Afghan security forces will be ready to take control by 2014: Lt General Caldwell
By Imrana Khwaja
Published: April 15, 2011
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Lt General Caldwell said that Nato had trained 220 counter intelligence agents in the last 8 months. PHOTO: AFP/FILE

LONDON:
The general in charge of Natos mission to train Afghan security forces said Thursday that they will be ready to take the lead for security within Afghanistan by Natos target date of December 2014.

US Lieutenant General William Caldwell, who assumed command of the Nato Training Mission Afghanistan (NTM-A) in November 2009, said this during a press briefing at the US Embassy in London.

Recruitment had risen from about 800 per month in September 2009 to about 6,000 new recruits per month, he said, and Nato is expecting to achieve its target of 305,000 Afghans in their security forces by October of this year.

Regarding the infiltration of security forces by the Taliban, Lt General Caldwell said that Nato had trained 220 counter intelligence agents in the last 8 months within the Afghan National Army whose task was to find infiltrators and those who may be trying to turn others towards the Taliban. A more rigorous vetting process had also been introduced for new recruits and the entire existing army was also undergoing a vetting process.

There have been a number of recent cases of rogue Afghan security personnel killing foreign soldiers. Earlier this month, two American soldiers on a training mission were killed by an Afghan border policeman.

Admitting that the recruitment of Pashtuns into the security forces remained a challenge, Caldwell said that Pashtuns remain under represented within the security forces. Only 3.7 per cent of Pashtuns being recruited are from southern Afghanistan as opposed to a target figure of 10 per cent. In relation to their percentage in the population, Tajiks are over represented in the Afghan National Army by about 8 per cent and by more than 15 per cent in the police.

Caldwell went on to detail progress made by the Mission in the last 18 months, particularly in education. Since April 2010, he said, the NTM-A had taken on the task of educating army and police and now employed 2,000 Afghan teachers for this purpose.

Every day 34,000 people are taking mandatory literacy training and by this December 50 per cent of the army and police should be literate he said.

Only 14 per cent of new recruits are literate he pointed out.

The Mission will start to train Afghans to become trainers this year and the aim, he said, was for Afghans to be in the lead for training by December 2012.
 

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