Taliban Analyst: 'Obama's comment resemble a dream more than reality'

Just yesterday I posted about President Obama's ludicrous comments that we should reach out to moderate Taliban and now, analysts are coming out of the woodwork to call out Obama on this nonsense. From the article over at Reuters, here's one of my favorite quotes:

"Where are the so-called moderate Taliban? Who are the moderate Taliban?" asked Mozhdah, who was an official in both the Taliban and the Karzai governments.

That's exactly what my comments were yesterday - that Obama is reaching for some pie-in-the-sky solution, grasping at some sort of straw of reason among the Taliban. This is a terrorist group that has NEVER signalled any willingness for any kind of negotiations in Afghanistan. Here's more from the article:

"'Moderate Taliban' is like 'moderate killer'. Is there such a thing?," asked writer and analyst Qaseem Akhgar.

"They would like to pacify some elements of the Taliban but I have my doubts about this," he said.
"The Taliban are very rigid in their demands. They actually don't want to talk unless there is some guarantee that Western forces will leave," he said.

That last comment is right on target - the Taliban have no intentions of ever ending their operations until Western forces have left Afghanistan - it's really very simple...the Taliban want the country of Afghanistan back. Nothing less than that is acceptable. I don't know why this is so damn difficult for American politicians to understand. It's the same with most Arab factions in the Middle East - they don't want peace with Israel, they want Israel destroyed and removed.

I had a commenter yesterday that tried to equate Obama's call for this reaching out to what American forces did in Iraq with the Awakening movement in Anbar province and it simply does not reflect that at all. Obama did not say we should reach out to sympathetic Afghan war lords and villagers and try to position them against the Taliban in their midst....Obama specifically said to reach out to moderates INSIDE of the TALIBAN. In Iraq, we didn't reach out to moderates in al Qaeda - we reached out to Sunni tribal leaders who were on the fence - they had tried their hand at insurgency but had also been victims of the al Qaeda oppression. That's the difference - hell, most of the MSM is now trying to report that Obama has this magic plan for Afghanistan and they've missed the difference as well. Why not do the same thing with al Qaeda? With Hamas and Hezbollah? Yeah right...just find a few dozen "moderates" inside of any of these terror groups and get them to turn those groups. I mean, it's so ludicrous it's almost funny.

The POTUS really has no place throwing any kind of thought process out there in regards to Afghanistan - he needs to button it up and let those who know what's going on, say their piece and make the plans. I'm sure there are plenty of Taliban sitting around a campfire in Helmand province right now reading Obama's comments and having their first real laugh in months.

Obama's call on moderate Taliban useless: analysts

KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's proposal to reach out to moderate Taliban will fail to end the Afghan insurgency as it is inflexible Taliban leaders who are orchestrating the war, not moderates, analysts said.
Obama, in an interview with the New York Times newspaper published on its website on Saturday, expressed an openness to adapting tactics in Afghanistan that had been used in Iraq to reach out to moderate elements there.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed Obama's proposal but analysts were doubtful.
"Obama's comment resemble a dream more than reality," said Waheed Mozhdah, an analyst who has written a book on the Taliban.
"Where are the so-called moderate Taliban? Who are the moderate Taliban?" asked Mozhdah, who was an official in both the Taliban and the Karzai governments.
Karzai's pro-Western administration and the growing number of foreign forces in Afghanistan have increasingly come under attack from a resurgent Taliban, with Obama now describing Afghanistan as a top foreign policy priority for his new administration.
"'Moderate Taliban' is like 'moderate killer'. Is there such a thing?," asked writer and analyst Qaseem Akhgar.
Obama did point out that compared to Iraq the situation was more complex in Afghanistan, where nearly 70,000 foreign troops, 38,000 of them American, are due to be joined in coming months by another 17,000 U.S. soldiers.
The number of foreign troops in Afghanistan has risen steadily since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in 2001 after they refused to hand over al Qaeda leaders responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States.
The level of violence has also risen, as the Taliban have stepped up their campaign to force out Western troops.
Some Western politicians and military officers now say the war cannot be won by military means alone and a solution will have to involve some form of reconciliation.
"RIGID DEMANDS"
The key to ending Afghan violence lay in the hands of the Taliban leaders who are on a U.S. wanted list, Mozhdah said.
"Taliban leaders are behind the insurgency, not the so-called moderates. To put an end to the war, they have to be included in any talks, their views should be heard," Mozhdah said.
"Their names have to be removed from the list because they are the source of the crisis."
Pakistani analyst Rahimullah Yousufzai welcomed Obama's proposal to engage with moderates, saying the United States was finally coming around to the realization there would be no military solution.
But he too was skeptical about the chances of negotiating with the Taliban who have shown no hint of compromise on their main demand -- that foreign troops get out.
"They would like to pacify some elements of the Taliban but I have my doubts about this," he said.
"The Taliban are very rigid in their demands. They actually don't want to talk unless there is some guarantee that Western forces will leave," he said.
Analysts said Obama's proposal to reach out to moderate Taliban was also aimed at splitting the movement, although Karzai has failed to do that with his repeated offers over recent years to engage with moderates.
"I don't foresee much change on the ground ... Over the last eight years, there have been very few Taliban defections," said Yousufzai.
"They have Mullah Omar as their leader. They have to approach Mullah Omar and as we all know he is very inflexible."
In Iraq, the use of Sunni Muslim community leaders to employ their people to patrol their neighborhoods has been credited as one of the main reasons behind sharp falls in violence.