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January 29, 2010

We Must Talk to Radical Taliban Too

Christian Neef, Der Spiegel

AP Photo

The West wants to defeat the Taliban by paying off moderate fighters. What nonsense. Afghanistan's history shows that without giving the radicals a place at the table any effort at reconciliation is doomed to failure. Calls for an exit program underscore the helplessness of the NATO alliance.

On the surface, it appears to be working. Even before President Hamid Karzai was able to present his plan for reconciliation with the Taliban, the first defector had arrived on the scene. His name is Maulvi Mohammed Shah.

Until last weekend, Maulvi Mohammed Shah was a Talib in Afghanistan's Baghdis province -- more precisely in the district of Javand. It's not far from Herat, the city close to the border with Turkmenistan. Shah commanded 20 fighters, and together...

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TAGGED: Maulvi Mohammed Shah, Hamid Karzai, Mohammad Najibullah, Taliban, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Kabul, Afghanistan, Kalashnikov, President

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