LONDON - The Afghan government and its Western allies now have their eyes set on ending the eight-year war, and recognise the only way of achieving peace is to talk to the Taliban and give them a role in the nation's future. President Hamid Karzai told an international conference in London he will first set up a National Council for Peace, Reconciliation and Reintegration to look at ways of engaging with the Taliban. That will be soon followed by a loya jirga, a meeting of elders that traditionally resolves disputes. Karzai will invite the Taliban to be represented at the jirga, a government spokesman said, a tacit recognition that th austere Islamist insurgents have a role in the political future of the country which has been traumatised by 30 years of successive conflicts. "You have to be willing to engage with your enemies if you expect to create a situation that ends an insurgency or so marginalises the remaining insurgents that it doesn't pose a threat to the stability and security of the people," said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Kabul is keen the peace process is "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned" and wants to keep foreigners at bay. That will both increase the likelihood that the Taliban will send representatives to the meeting and also allows the United States and its European allies to say with hand on heart that they are not negotiating with the Taliban themselves. "The real $64,000 question is that since the Taliban is in a strong position, why should they negotiate? Why don't they simply wait it out and wear their opponent down?" said Paul Rogers, professor of peace studies at Britain's Bradford University. Contacts though, have already begun. Members of the Taliban's leadership council secretly met the United Nations special envoy to Afghanistan in Dubai on Jan. 8, a U.N. official told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "They requested a meeting to talk about talks," the official said. Following a re-election marred by widespread charges of fraud, Karzai still needs to hold the jirga, even if the Taliban do not turn up, to get a mandate from Afghan leaders not in the insurgent camp to proceed with talking to the Taliban. Much has been written about Western troops getting bogged down in a never-ending fruitless fight with the Taliban, but it takes two to make a stalemate. The Taliban are also not achieving their objective of driving foreign troops off Afghan soil. Far from it, the number of US and NATO troops has climbed steadily from 40,000 two years ago to more than 100,000 now and is set to rise further.
