Karzai Asks Saudis to Broker Peace with Taliban

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has contacted the Saudis to see it they can help broker a peace deal with the resurgent Taliban. The Saudis fund much of the Wahabi variety of Islam, which includes the Taliban. Going to their paymasters for peace may be a necessary evil. It is clearly another sign that the Bush administration has failed.

It is likely that the Saudis have the leverage with the Taliban needed to bring them to the negotiating table. The question is just what gets negotiated. Another uneasy power sharing deal would set back women in Afghanistan most definitely, and it would possibly give Al Qaeda some breathing room. It also might give the hard-line Islamists in Pakistan some cause to cheer.

That said, a bad peace in Afghanistan is probably better than what they have right now. The Taliban and other militias are enjoying a resurgence because of the booming opium trade. Drugs mean money with which to buy bullets, and it is only NATO troops and support that prevent the Kabul-government from being on the losing end of a war of attrition.

This, of course, presumes the Saudis are willing to try and the Taliban believe they can get from peace what they aren’t getting from violence. Both are rather dodgy presumptions. The AP reports President Karzai as saying, “For the last two years, I've sent letters to the king of Saudi Arabia, and I've sent messages, and I requested from him as the leader of the Islamic world, for the security and prosperity of Afghanistan and for reconciliation in Afghanistan ... he should help us.” Two years is a long time even in diplomacy, raising the question of just how hard the Saudis are trying.

The AP also says Taliban leader Mullah Omar “released his own Eid message and launched a barrage of accusations against Afghanistan's security forces, calling them thieves, smugglers and criminals not worthy of people's trust. Omar's message did not include any indication of willingness to talk to Karzai's government. Instead, it called again on foreign troops to leave the country.

“A former senior Taliban official told The Associated Press last week that the militants do not consider Karzai a strong leader who can uphold and implement any potential deal if America does not agree with it. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to be identified.”

Thus ends the Bush administration’s Afghan adventure. The Kabul government is pleading with the Saudis to bring the Taliban to the table to work out a deal. Meanwhile, Usama bin Laden is still free. January 20, 2009, can’t come soon enough.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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