BRITAIN’S most senior commander in southern Afghanistan has said Nato forces would be “mugs” not to talk to the Taliban.
Major-General Nick Carter said efforts were already under way in the south to talk to insurgents and persuade them to lay down their arms.
“If you are going to prosecute a successful counter-insurgency campaign we would be a mug not to put it out there that we want to talk,” he said. His comments echo the views of General Sir David Richards, Britain’s newly appointed chief of the defence staff, who said recently that politicians and military commanders should start talking to the Taliban soon.
Carter said it was vital that Nato understood what drove the insurgents to fight.
“If you can discover that motivation can be solved by a conversation, not a bullet, then that’s a very sensible strategy to apply,” he said, before quoting Winston Churchill’s line that the more a general relied on manoeuvre, the less he demanded in slaughter.
He said Nato and the Afghan government had already had some success at reintegrating Taliban fighters in the Nad-e-Ali district in Helmand province, the scene of a large-scale offensive earlier this year.
Talks in the west of Kandahar province were also proving fruitful, he added. He refused to go into detail. There is some friction among western allies over how to proceed with Taliban peace talks at a senior level.
While supporting efforts to reintegrate low to mid-level commanders, America has long said it is not prepared to talk to senior Taliban leaders before its military had pummelled the insurgency in its strongholds of Kandahar and Helmand.
British diplomats and some Nato commanders believe that talks with the senior leadership could be conducted at the same time as the US military surge.
Although Washington has softened its stance in recent weeks, stating that it will support Hamid Karzai’s efforts to negotiate with the Taliban, many fear that the president does not wield sufficient political clout and that direct American involvement is essential.
A conference in Kabul this week to be attended by senior western officials is expected to clarify the West’s position on the reconciliation and re-integration of Taliban fighters.
So far there is no public sign that senior Taliban are willing to talk peace. In Kandahar, where thousands of extra Nato troops are gearing up for their push into Taliban-held territory, the insurgents have launched a counter-offensive, codenamed Al-Fatah.
The push has resulted in another bloody week for Nato troops, with 22 British and American soldiers killed, compelling some US units to request reinforcements.
Suicide bomb attacks have increased and pilots sent to pick up the wounded are reporting that their helicopters are coming back riddled with bullet holes.
“Instead of convincing them to talk, I think in fact the surge has actually closed doors. The Taliban have taken it as a declaration of war,” said Thomas Ruttig, a veteran Afghanistan analyst. “We can’t do peace and do war at the same time. It is not possible.”
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