Mein-Parteibuch.org

The leader of German Social Democratic Party, Kurt Beck, just was in Afghanistan for things like attending a foundation stone ceremony for a girls secondary school in Kunduz and talking with Afghan president Hamid Karzai. Just being home Kurt Beck came up with a surprising proposition. Kurt Beck suggests to organize a conference in Germany for talks on the future of Afghanistan and invite taliban leaders to that conference. You have got it right, the leader of the governing party SPD suggests to negociate with talibans on peace in Afghanistan.

First of all before discussing his proposition Mr Kurt Beck may be needed to be introduced to people abroad. Kurt Beck is the leader of the party SPD, which holds a 50% share in the German government of Chancellor Angela Merkel and holds in person of Frank-Walter Steinmeier the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As the leader of party SPD Mr Kurt Beck will most likely become the opponent of Angela Merkel in general German elections in the year 2009. Also foreign people may have the need to understand that in the German population the USA is recognized as being even more dangerous than the Iran. So it is only logical, that Kurt Beck says that nobody in Europe is in the need of a US missile defense system.

Before discussing Kurt Beck’s proposition of talks with the taliban it might be also needed to understand that Mr Kurt Beck is probably not acting alone, but backed up well. The Afghan president Hamid Karzai himself also has already established contacts with high rank taliban leaders. In Afghanistan the idea of talking with the taliban does far not sound that curious as it may sound in the Western world.

Now let’s have a look at the German critics. Besides the well-known self-claimed friends of America in the German blogsphere, who are arguing now, that it is impossible to negociate with barbarians like the taliban or it would look like a victory of the taliban, politicians in the christian union parties of governing Angela Merkel like Eckart von Klaeden and Hans-Peter Uhl fear the international community to lose their face if there would be official talks with the taliban. An answer to such statements is to be found in the Swiss blog virtual review, where it is asked, if it is christian ideology that it is better to fight than to talk.

Interesting it is to see, that in the USA and the United Kingdom the proposition of Kurt Beck to talk with taliban wasn’t commented so far at all. On the British public agenda are more likely written discussions about the British marines in Tehran and about the possibility to use planes of the Royal Airforce for suicide attacks on taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders.

In a similar manner the US government behaves. While stuck in Iraq and asked by their own people, why the USA are always at war, the political leadership of the USA apparently planned to attack the Iran with missiles on 6th of April, but forgot their war in Afghanistan. While captured taliban are shamefully and silently transferred into Afghan prisons for their future release by the US authorities, any plans from the US government on how to end their war in Afghanistan are not known. Perhaps it can already be seen as a sign of silent consent to talks with the taliban, that the USA stopped to drop cluster bombs whereever they assume talibans are hiding between the Afghan population.

The truth is, you may like it or not, that the Pakistan military - and with them the USA backing the operations against the taliban - already lost the war against the taliban in the Pakistan tribal area of North Waziristan, having no other way out than signing an agreement in Miran Shah with Mullah Omar to accept the empowerment of the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan ran by the taliban.

It is not hard to imagine, that the taliban operating in Afghanistan are backed from Pakistan. So what to do about Pakistan? Calling for US action to deal with the taliban in Pakistan is a nice idea, but oversees, that the USA already lost this war. So, what is the alternative to talks?

Shall the Western troops in Afghanistan fight for fifty years an ultimate war until an ultimate victory? There is no alternative to talking with each other. And talks about Afghanistan without getting the other side of the war, the taliban leaders of the Pakistan tribal areas, to the table, would be rather useless to achieve some kind of peace.

Will talks with the talibans bring peace? Probably not. But it is always worth a try to talk with each other instead of dropping bombs on people. Any peace, how ugly it may be, is for the population always better than a nice war.