Arab News, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 11, on the Afghanistan government’s talks with the Taliban:

Confirmation from Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai that his government has been having “unofficial” contacts with the Taliban is encouraging. Dialogue with the Taliban has to happen. Without it, the country has no chance of peace. Despite the presence of 150,000 foreign troops in the country, this has been its bloodiest year since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. The insurgency is growing in strength — and as it grows, the determination of NATO countries to keep their forces in Afghanistan ebbs.

The reason the last Dutch government collapsed was because one of the main partners, the Labor party, wanted Dutch troops withdrawn and recently the Italian foreign minister indicated that his country planned to withdraw its forces. In the U.S., too, public support for the American military presence is waning. Withdrawal will not happen tomorrow but the writing is on the wall — and Karzai knows it. He knows too that although the ill-equipped and disunited Taliban forces are unlikely ever to be in a position to defeat the Afghan Army, it is not winning either. What is happening is a bloody stalemate. The country sinks deeper and deeper into a security quagmire.

Karzai in fact called for talks with the Taliban before. His decision to appoint a 68-member strong High Peace Council with powers to negotiate with elements of the Taliban indicates that he is serious about bringing them into the fold. …

Karzai’s hope is to neutralize sufficient numbers of insurgents by offering them jobs and money — in short, bribing them. Doubtless there will be those in the West who are horrified at such an idea. But it is a lot better (and ultimately cheaper) than the present notion that opposition to the Karzai government can be crushed militarily. …

Online: http://arabnews.com