Author: Chidanand Rajghatta
Publication: The Times of India
Date: January 31, 2010
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/US-invite-to-Taliban-leaves-out-Pak-proxies/articleshow/5518937.cms
The Hamid Karzai-led and US-blessed peace
initiative in Afghanistan does not involve talks with the "really bad
guys" including the Pakistani proxy, Taliban chief Mullah Omar, clarified
US secretary of state Hillary
Clinton.
In remarks that brought some perspective and
clarity to the fluid but evolving situation in Afghanistan, Hillary on Friday
drew the line in the sand about engaging the Taliban, saying in a radio interview,
"We're not going to talk to the really bad guys because the really bad
guys are not ever going to renounce al-Qaida and renounce violence and agree
to re-enter society."
Hillary made it clear that Washington does
not regard the Pakistan-based and -backed Mullah Omar and his Quetta shura
to be in that category. "That (talks) is not going to happen with Mullah
Omar and the like," she said, without naming his Pakistani hosts. "But
there are so many fighters in the Taliban that are there, frankly, because
it's a way to make a living in a country where the Taliban pay them more than
they can make as a farmer or in some other line of work out in the countryside."
Hillary left little doubt that Washington
was aiming to split the Taliban, telling the National Public Radio in London
that "everyone has realized, as we did in Iraq, that you have to begin
to go right at the insurgents and peel those off who are willing to renounce
violence, renounce al-Qaida, agree to live by the laws and constitution of
Afghanistan and re-enter society".
While Mullah Omar too has dismissed prospects
of talks with the US or President Karzai pending his own laundry list of demands
particularly exit of foreign forces from Afghanistan, his Pakistani handlers,
including ISI frontman Col Imam, have presented the one-eyed illiterate mullah
as the man to engage, as Islamabad fights to stay relevant in Afghanistan.
"If a sincere message comes from the
Americans, these people (the Taliban) are very big-hearted. They will listen.
But if you try to divide the Taliban, you'll fail. Anyone who leaves Mullah
Omar is no more Taliban. Such people are just trying to deceive," Imam,
whose real name is Brigadier ("retd") Sultan Amir Tarar, said recently,
batting for the Pakistani military's proxies.
