Pashtun Taliban Talks and the War with No End

The Pashtun Taliban have many different groups among them fighting against NATO forces in Afghanistan. Some of these troops are now secretly engaged in talks with the Americans.  The US government initiated contact at the suggestion of Obama’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke (recently deceased). The New Yorker’s Steve Coll will publish a brief “Comment” in the February issue of the New Yorker describing the beginning talks.

Pashtun Warriors pictured in 2010

The US and Taliban talks will hopefully lead to negotiations of a settlement that can end the war, but as Coll points out these talks have to remain private and secret to avoid volatile reactions by non-Pashtun militias in the middle and north of Afghanistan. Talks are a good sign for the possibility of ending the war with no end in Afghanistan. America’s war against the indigenous peoples of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Pashtun, must come to an end.  The Pashtun know they are going no where else, but the US and its Allies must go home.