The recent statement of the British commander in Afghanistan didn’t come as a surprise to many sitting on the Eastern border of Afghanistan. The British Commander in Helmand Brig Mark Carleton-Smith told media that decisive victory is not possible in Afghanistan and Taliban can never be defeated completely. This is a second statement coming out of Britain after the recent conversation of British ambassador in Kabul with French was made public.

Over the years, the posture of NATO troops operating in Afghanistan has changed from very aggressive to defensive and is not rare these days to hear them sounding just like Pakistani forces who were voicing their support for negotiations with Talibans. It is not Taliban who are waging the insurgency rather it is the Pashtuns whose culture and whose lands have been invaded by the aggressors and who don’t understand their culture and their traditions and hence fallen pray to it. Since the times of Alexander, no one has ruled these mountains and the only ruler is the Pashtunwali which rules it. British are well aware of this bitter reality and hence more vocal in their support for negotiation and against the using of force since they remember what happened to their force two centuries back when they tried to use force.

NATO and Americans have always objected on Pakistan for negotiating with the Talibans but the irony of the matter is that today they are themselves calling for negotiations with the Talibans including Mullah Omer. I will not be surprised that they will even be ready to negotiate with Osama Bin Laden if situation gets further deteriorated in Afghanistan and else where. The puppet Afghan government has called on Saudi Arabia to use its influence with the Taliban to bring them to the negotiations. It is worth mentioning here that Taliban are not ready to negotiate with the Americans or the NATO and are calling for their unconditional withdrawal. This is a shameful situation for the mighty armies of the West that they are asking the rag tag and informal militias to negotiate with them while the later are rejecting any offer for negotiations.

I wonder if they will now allow Pakistanis to negotiate with the Taliban on this side of the border as well?

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