President Barack Obama claims he will reach out to "moderate" members of Afghanistan's Taliban to bring the war in that nation to a close.
But there's a simple flaw in Obama's logic - there are no moderate members of the Taliban - at least not using the westernized definition of political moderate. The Taliban is comprised of hard line Islamists. Their reputation as fundamentalist Muslims is well earned. The Taliban enforced a strict interpretation of Sharia law. During their rule, public floggings and executions were common. Television and the Internet were banned, as was something as frivolous as kite flying.
Then of course is the treatment of women. Under the Taliban women were treated as chattel and routinely beaten and disfigured for "lewd" behavior.
This is the mentality of the people President Obama wants to reach out and find a moderate. It's not probable.
Taliban expert and former official Waheed Mozhdah told Reuters that Obama's comments resemble a dream.
Another Mid East analyst, Qaseem Akhgar, also told Reuters that a moderate member of the Taliban is akin to a moderate killer.
So with no moderate member of the Taliban in sight, who was Obama talking to? The international community might give a nod to his comments, but even the most timid of French leaders knows there's no such thing as a moderate member of the Taliban. Besides, they know that Obama is sending 17,000 more troops to lend support to the 38,000 U.S. troops already serving there.
So that leaves a significant portion of the American voting populace as the target of Obama's rhetoric. Obama's comment was certainly aimed at the anti-war members of his own party. He wants to show this segment of the voting population that he is dedicated to ending the war in Afghanistan. Even while he sends more troops to fight the government that harbored the terrorists who attacked this nation in 2001, he's placating the ardent anti-war crowd, nothing else.
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Take a look at the March 9 Newsweek cover story about "Learning to Live with Radical Islam" — http://www.newsweek.com/id/187093. The writer makes some interesting points, one of which is that radical Islam, including the Taliban's reign, has not lasted long wherever it has been tried because people quickly tired of it. In some Islamic countries, however, the civil institutions are so corrupt that radical Islam and Sharia law are welcomed -- at least at first. Obama's willingness to talk to the Taliban is no different from George W. Bush's willingness to talk to -- or at least have his generals talk to -- the Islamic terrorists who were killing Americans in Iraq. It worked!
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