Will this Jirga prove a turning point in President Karzai’s efforts to woo the Taliban?
While addressing the Peace Jirga, or the grand council for peace, held recently in Kabul and attended by pro-Karzai Afghan politicians and elders, President Karzai’s message to the insurgents was: “Make peace with me and there will be no need for foreigners here. As long as you are not talking to us, not making peace with us, we will not let the foreigners leave.” The insurgents responded by launching a rocket attack and a suicide bomber on the assembly site, dubbing the attendees as cronies of the West and vowed to keep fighting with the foreign occupiers. The Afghan government says the assembly was of “consultative” nature, an effort to build national consensus on how to pursue peace talks by addressing some of the most basic questions related to the much sought after peace in Afghanistan. From this platform Karzai rolled out his program to lure the Taliban off the battlefield. In the end, a carefully choreographed gathering of 1,600 delegates endorsed Karzai’s push for peace talks w
