Negotiating with the Taliban

[Ike Bana]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

In a perfect world (from the American nationalistic point-of-view) we would never have to negotiate with anyone. We would just express our wishes and all others would rush to obey. Alas, we in fact do not enjoy that level of cooperation from foreigners.

So, in this imperfect world, we must make hard choices. In this case, we could negotiate with the Taliban, thus according them some level of legitimacy, but getting our soldier returned. Or we could withhold that increment of legitimacy, dealing either a slight or a great blow to their cause (who can say?), but leaving our soldier to his fate.

Why do I have the feeling that whichever course the President had followed, Whell would be on here claiming it was blatantly the wrong thing to do?

Reckon he would also be the one to suggest that we did all the right things in Iran, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Chile, The Philippines and Vietnam. Even though history has shown that virtually all of the geopolitical trouble we've had over the last 50 years has been our own doing.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by whell

No, I'm not drawing a direct line between the release of Bergdahl and the events this weekend in Pakistan. However, I think its work reminding ourselves exactly who we negotiated with, and have now by extension recognized as an international entity. 23 dead, and the Taliban have claimed responsibility.

http://www.hometownlife.com/usatoday/article/10220535

You can fool some of the people some of the time whell, but you can't fool me.

This is just another one of your "any excuse to take a cheap shot at Obama" threads.

[icenine]

Actually are we at war with Pakistan? The OP has his countries confused mayhap.

[whell]

Originally Posted by icenine

you are crazy joke


you think they care about a concept such as legitimization?

Yes. They do.

http://time.com/2826534/bowe-bergdahl-taliban-captors/

"This is a historic moment for us. Today our enemy for the first time officially recognized our status.”

[whell]

Originally Posted by icenine

Actually North Vietnam is Vietnam. They won the war remember?

Uh, no. It was a negotiated peace that North Vietnam wanted as much as we did, especially after we demonstrated that we could bomb Hanoi and Haiphong whenever we wanted.

[whell]

Originally Posted by finnbow

Iran is the world's biggest state sponsor of terrorism and the Contras were not a nation. And yes, the Taliban were the leaders of a nation when we went to war with them. In fact, that was the reason we went to war with them (their nation, Afghanistan, was a safe haven for OBL).

They WERE the leadership of Afghanistan before they were forcibly removed. They are NOW a fundamentalist political movement in Afghanistan, and as this weekend's activity demonstrates, still very much interested in terrorism.

While Iran maybe a STATE sponsor of terrorism, they are still a STATE.

[whell]

Originally Posted by Tom Joad

You can fool some of the people some of the time whell, but you can't fool me.

This is just another one of your "any excuse to take a cheap shot at Obama" threads.

Right. Whenever terrorists below up an airport in Pakistan, it must be about Obama.

What a maroon.

[bobabode]

Wanna borrow a No.2 shovel Mike? That snow shovel that you're using is woefully inadequate to the task at hand.

[4-2-7]

I think Obama is wonderful and should be able to do anything he wants. It's his country and he's the President after all.

[icenine]

what part of Ho Chi Minh City do you not understand?