Signs of hope in Afghanistan????????

Pakistani Dawn News TV reports today:

The mini jirga [tribal convention] of Pakistan and Afghanistan has agreed to form a committee to make contact with, what it calls, opposition in both countries for peace and reconciliation.

The Afghan delegation to the jirga was led by Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, former Foreign Minister in the Karzai administration and Board Advisor to Kabul Center for Strategic Studies, the think tank I work for in Afghanistan.

The Dawn report continues:

Dr Abdullah Abdullah, said both sides agreed to improve cooperation in the fight against terrorism. It has recommended to governments in Pakistan and Afghanistan to deny sanctuaries for terrorists, which are a threat to both parties.

Abdullah said that the jirga delegates have also recommended to expedite the process of peace and reconciliation in the region.

Abdullah's counterpart from Pakistan, Awais Ahmed Ghani, told the media that they will form a committee to establish contacts with, what he called, opposition to bring lasting peace in the region.

When asked to clarify the term opposition, Mr Ghani said that the it includes all those elements involved in the conflict.

Let's hope the time has come that ALL parties are ready to lay down their arms and come to the table.

Note to "opposition": You have nothing to lose by negotiating but more lives. Make Allah proud (for a change.)

Kabul Center advisor leads Afghan-Pak peace delegation in tribal areas

Kabul Center for Strategic Studies board member Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the former Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, is leading the Afghan delegation to the mini-jirga that began meetings today to discuss ways to bring about peace in the tribal areas that span the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan. (Full disclosure: I serve as the American Office of Kabul Center.)
Both countries and the U.S. have indicated that they are willing to reconcile with the Taliban provided they are willing to respect basic law and lay down their arms.
As an Afghan delegate Farooq Wardak told reporters: "Those who want to fight, I think they are the common enemy of the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan. We have to coordinate our military strategy, fight them in a coordinated manner."

Things are not that bad in Afghanistan

In case you missed this report: straight from the New York Times:

Less than 12 hours after NATO troops in Afghanistan defeated an ambitious attempt by the Taliban to storm a provincial capital in the far southwest, killing dozens of the fighters, the top American commander in the country urged doubters Sunday to believe that the war against the Taliban would be won.

The commander, Gen. David D. McKiernan, who leads more than 65,000 troops from about 40 foreign countries, including 33,000 Americans, said at a news conference in Kabul that there had been “too many” reports in the media recently asserting that the foreign forces and their Afghan allies were losing the war.

“I absolutely reject that idea, I don’t believe it,” the general said, adding: “It is true that there are many places in this country that don’t have an adequate level of security. We don’t have progress as even and as fast as any of us would like. But we are not losing in Afghanistan.”

At another point, he was more emphatic. There are major challenges facing the war effort, he said, “But we will win.”

Before you bet against the U.S., NATO, or the Afghan forces, you check out the full report.

Why are the Taliban blowing up the tribals?

Aren't they supposed to be allies in this war?

Well, no, actually. The reality is far different: From what my Afghan colleagues at Kabul Center for Strategic Studies tell me, the vast majority of Pakistan's supposedly ignorant and extremist tribals hate the Taliban. If most people in the West still don't understand this fundamental dynamic, the Taliban certainly gets it. Hence we see the motive for their hideous bombing yesterday. From The New York Times report:

A suicide bomber detonated a vehicle laden with explosives during a meeting of elders in Pakistan’s tribal territories on Friday, killing more than 40 people and wounding more than 100, according to a government official, television accounts and witnesses.

Elders in the Orakzai tribal area, vowing to push Taliban extremists out of their area, were planning the details of how to wipe out a Taliban headquarters, said Kamran Zeb, the government’s senior official in Orakzai.

And as the Times report goes on to report:

In another harsh move, Taliban fighters kidnapped four tribal elders from Bajaur and then beheaded them after they attended a pro-government meeting in the Charmung district of Bajaur, local news reports said Friday.

And the walls came tumbling down

Reporting from Baghdad, the New York Times:

Market by market, square by square, the walls are beginning to come down. The miles of hulking blast walls, ugly but effective, were installed as a central feature of the surge of American troops to stop neighbors from killing one another.

“They protected against car bombs and drive-by attacks,” said Adnan, 39, a vegetable seller in the once violent neighborhood of Dora, who argues that the walls now block the markets and the commerce that Baghdad needs to thrive. “Now it is safe.”