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Gates: Top Taliban unlikely to reintegrate for now
Source: Agencies |
January 19, 2010, Tuesday
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SENIOR Taliban leaders may largely shun a new Afghan re-integration plan for now but the program may be more successful at lower levels, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday.
Afghanistan's government is expected this month to announce details of the plan, which diplomats said would include job training and money to lure fighters from the hills.
"It's our view that, until the Taliban leadership sees a change in the momentum and begins to see that they are not going to win, that the likelihood of significant reconciliation at senior levels is not terribly great," Gates said during a flight to India.
"I think on the other hand, we may see a real growth of re-integration at the local or district, provincial level."
Previous efforts to win over Taliban fighters failed because little attempt was made to offer protection or financial incentives.
The new program comes at a time when the insurgency is at its strongest since the Taliban were ousted from power in late 2001, and fighters who think victory is in sight may be less interested in any offer.
Gates, who is overseeing the deployment of 30,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan, said the Taliban would feel more inclined to join reconciliation efforts once they felt "real pressure" and knew the Afghan government could protect them.
"Reconciliation, as they say, has to be part of the ultimate conclusion here, just as it was in Iraq. Whether that could include Mullah Omar, I frankly question whether that's realistic," he said, referring to the Taliban leader in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's government is expected this month to announce details of the plan, which diplomats said would include job training and money to lure fighters from the hills.
"It's our view that, until the Taliban leadership sees a change in the momentum and begins to see that they are not going to win, that the likelihood of significant reconciliation at senior levels is not terribly great," Gates said during a flight to India.
"I think on the other hand, we may see a real growth of re-integration at the local or district, provincial level."
Previous efforts to win over Taliban fighters failed because little attempt was made to offer protection or financial incentives.
The new program comes at a time when the insurgency is at its strongest since the Taliban were ousted from power in late 2001, and fighters who think victory is in sight may be less interested in any offer.
Gates, who is overseeing the deployment of 30,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan, said the Taliban would feel more inclined to join reconciliation efforts once they felt "real pressure" and knew the Afghan government could protect them.
"Reconciliation, as they say, has to be part of the ultimate conclusion here, just as it was in Iraq. Whether that could include Mullah Omar, I frankly question whether that's realistic," he said, referring to the Taliban leader in Afghanistan.
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