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"We’re not going to win this war," Carleton-Smith said. (Sunday Times photo) |
CAIRO — The US-led foreign troops would never be able to militarily defeat the resurgent Taliban and the only solution for Afghanistan's problems is engaging Taliban in dialogue, Britain's top military commander in Afghanistan has said.
"We're not going to win this war," Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith told The Sunday Times on October 5.
"It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army."
Carleton-Smith insists it would "unrealistic and probably incredible" to think that the US-led foreign forces could rid the country of Taliban.
"We may well leave with there still being a low but steady ebb of rural insurgency.
"I don't think we should expect that when we go there won't be roaming bands of armed men in this part of the world."
Taliban, ousted by the US following the 9/11 attacks, has been engaged in protracted guerrilla warfare against foreign forces and the West-backed government of Hamid Karzai for the past seven years.
Helmand governor Gulab Mangal said last week that Taliban controlled more than half of the volatile southern province, where most of Britain 8,000 troops are stationed.
Britain has lost more than 120 of its troops since the 2001 invasion.
A recent report by the Senlis Council think-tank said Taliban has permanent presence in more than half of Afghanistan.
Talks
The British commander added his voice to a growing camp calling for talks with Taliban to solve the conflict in war-ravaged Afghanistan.
"If the Taliban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that's precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this," Carleton-Smith maintains.
"That shouldn't make people uncomfortable.
"We want to change the nature of the debate from one where disputes are settled through the barrel of the gun to one where it is done through negotiations."
Though Washington publically opposes talks with Taliban, a growing number of its allies now believes negotiations to be the only viable option.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said last week he had asked Saudi Arabia to mediate in talks with Taliban.
The United Nations envoy and the Pakistani government have also called for talks with Taliban.
But Taliban links peace talks to the withdrawal of the 70,000 US-led foreign forces.
"They should know that Taliban will never hold talks with the invaders," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told the Pakistan-based Afghan news agency AIP Sunday.
"What we had said in the past, we also say once again, that foreign forces should leave without any condition."
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