In an interview with the Financial Times, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, articulated that cooperation with the Taliban in the formation of the Afghan government is not out of the question.
“I think any Afghans can play a role if they focus on the future, and not the past,” he stated in the interview, which was published Monday.
President Obama has made similar statements recently. In a Dec. 1, 2009, announcement declaring the deployment of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, he noted the possibility of cooperation with the Taliban in the formation of a new Afghan government.
“We will support efforts by the Afghan government to open the door to those Taliban who abandon violence and respect the human rights of their fellow citizens,” Obama said.
The Taliban, which was the standing regime in Afghanistan previous to the start of the war in 2001, housed some of al-Qaeda’s top leaders by enabling al-Qaeda operation from Afghan soil.
While almost nine years have passed since the launching of attacks in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are still holding power in some of the mountainous regions along the border and have infiltrated into the bordering regions of Pakistan.
In a confidential document obtained by the Washington Post in September 2009 McChrystal reportedly pointed to the growing threat of the insurgency of al-Qaeda into Afghanistan along Afghan borders.
He noted that failure to supplement and bolster troops along Afghanistan’s borders could result in the failure to combat insurgency by al-Qaeda.
“Failure to gain the initiative and reverse insurgent momentum in the near term (next 12 months)—while Afghan security capacity matures—risks an outcome where defeating the insurgency is no longer possible,” he stated in the document.
While the war in Afghanistan proves to be a difficult situation on all fronts, Obama and McChrystal both predict that a growing cooperation between Taliban leaders and the current government may be what is necessary to bring about peace in the region.
With additional reporting by Joshua Philipp
