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What US president Barack Obama's administration has been pursuing in Afghanistan for the past one year has now received international imprimatur,

thanks to the well-scripted London conference. Four words sum up that strategy: surge, bribe and run. Obama has designed his twin troop surges not to militarily rout the Afghan Taliban but to strike a political deal with the enemy from a position of strength. Without a deal with Taliban commanders, the US cannot execute the 'run' part.

The Obama approach has been straightforward: if you can't defeat them, buy them off. Having failed to rout the Taliban, Washington has been holding indirect talks with the Afghan militia's shura, or top council, whose members are holed up in Quetta, including the one-eyed chief, Mullah...