Marcy hit this too, but I can’t see Joint Task Force-Guantanamo officers going in for the Taliban’s request to free their detainees to participate in peace talks with Karzai. Why wouldn’t the Taliban just claim all Afghan detainees are big-time Taliban operatives and demand their freedom? But it’s a savvy strategy for the Taliban: make [...]

I’m kicking it to the new Big Boi album this morning, and in my morning news shuffling I came across this initially baffling headline: Taliban code of conduct seeks to win hearts, minds. It’s true, right? While that’s not exactly what I expected to read this morning, the insertion of “Taliban” where usually NATO/ISAF is [...]

Speaking of the reconciliation/governance options before the Afghan government, don’t miss Thomas Ruttig’s Q&A at Foreign Policy. This point is worth highlighting: I find the differentiation into “reintegration” (of low and mid-level Taliban) and “reconciliation” (talk to leaders who break their ties with al-Qaida) is artificial and not up to the realities. The Taliban have [...]

Hamid Karzai’s trip to Kandahar to herald the “process” for securing the city that he, President Obama and Gen. McChrystal agreed to publicly in Washington places some doubt around Friday’s Times piece about Karzai seeking a peace-at-any-price deal with the Taliban. “This operation requires sacrifice, and without sacrifice you cannot restore peace to Kandahar,” Mr. [...]

About that earlier post on how Obama wanted Karzai to respond to July 2011 by governing but Karzai responded to it by accelerating Taliban reconciliation? Fired intel chief Amrullah Saleh presents that contention to the New York Times. This could very easily be the grinding axe of a cashiered official. But prudence suggests that Mark [...]

Will the prospect of reconciliation with the Taliban come at the expense of women’s rights? I spoke this morning with Suraya Pakzad, one of Afghanistan’s leading women’s rights activists. She’s in Washington right now to press the Obama administration and the international community not to turn a glimmer of hope for ending the war into [...]

One traditional safety valve for Pakistan, the eastern regions of Afghanistan, is likely to become less available as the US beefs up its military presence there. In theory, the hammer of US/NATO forces will strike the Taliban, forcing it back against the anvil of Pakistan’s own military presence.

The anvil now seems to be getting a bit worried.