The Taliban collection (2006 onwards)

[JMA]

I'm sure my approval means as much to him as yours, which is to say nothing at all.

touche

"Don't trust the Taliban" is an easy enough thing to say, and not quite rocket science... has anyone proposed that we should trust the Taliban? I'd add "don't trust the Karzai Government", "don't trust the Pakistanis", and possibly a few others.

No, you are missing the point again.

The US is about to cut-and-run once again. Precedent indicates that the US politicians will attempt to cover their withdrawal through some sort of negotiation process real or bogus.

So the message should go out to the US government and those supplying troops to ISAF that, yes by all means pull out of Afghanistan, but don't try and sell the world a crock in the process.

[Dayuhan]

No, you are missing the point again.

The US is about to cut-and-run once again. Precedent indicates that the US politicians will attempt to cover their withdrawal through some sort of negotiation process real or bogus.

The US has belatedly realized that it's pursuing a pointless effort with slim to zero chance of achieving the inflated objectives posed by mission creep. Efforts to reverse that policy are in progress. If that's "cut-and-run", so be it. What would we have them do, bang their heads against that wall for another decade to demonstrate persistence?

Yes, there will probably be some effort to prop up some kind of (not very) face-saving resolution. This is not unique to the US, nor will it surprise anyone.

So the message should go out to the US government and those supplying troops to ISAF that, yes by all means pull out of Afghanistan, but don't try and sell the world a crock in the process.

No, you are missing the point again.

They aren't trying to sell anything to the world... why would they? They only need to sell it to the American voter, and the American voter is perfectly willing to buy the crock. They want to get out of there, and any charade that creates a justification for getting out of there is good enough