Quickhits
(AP) Obama says he might to reach out to moderate elements of the Taleban. (The military has been talking about this for months.)
The NYTimes Week in Review has a piece asking if splitting the Taleban is realistic strategy.
(NYTimes) "Asked if the United States was winning in Afghanistan.... Mr. Obama replied flatly, “No.”
(AFP) "Taliban militants on Saturday shot down a suspected drone aircraft in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said." (Might've been a crash.)
(Haaretz) Iran gives some signals that it might want to cooperate on Afghanistan.
(NYTimes) US, Syria begin low level talks.
(AP) Israeli planes drop a couple of bombs on Gaza.
(AP) A big suicide bombing outside the main police academy in Baghdad kills at least 26.
The NYTimes Week in Review has a piece asking if splitting the Taleban is realistic strategy.
(NYTimes) "Asked if the United States was winning in Afghanistan.... Mr. Obama replied flatly, “No.”
(AFP) "Taliban militants on Saturday shot down a suspected drone aircraft in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said." (Might've been a crash.)
(Haaretz) Iran gives some signals that it might want to cooperate on Afghanistan.
(NYTimes) US, Syria begin low level talks.
(AP) Israeli planes drop a couple of bombs on Gaza.
(AP) A big suicide bombing outside the main police academy in Baghdad kills at least 26.
posted by mikevotes at
6:44 AM
6 Comments:
Iran just might not turn out to be an unrealistic supply route after all.
Fundamentalist Shia "hearts and minds" efforts in Afghanistan would be a deadly blow to Taliban propaganda, as well. Iran should have been the first country the Coalition turned to for help in the Afghan effort. Instead, because of Bush, it is the last.
Iran really, really wants stability on its frontier. And the sooner that Western militaries leave its northern and western borders, the less Iran will have to rely on proxies.
By
Todd Dugdale , at 3:46 PM
I think you'll it's Israel that doesn't want any deals with Iran.
By
Anonymous, at 7:19 PM
Try that again...I think you'll find it's Israel that doesn't want any deals with Iran.
By
Anonymous, at 7:20 PM
Todd, I don't think you want to grant them absolute veto power. However it might be very good policy to run some stuff through as a secondary route.
Anon, yeah,
By
mikevotes, at 10:07 PM
I think you'll find that Israel doesn't really have our best interests in mind.
If it's a choice between Iran and Russia having absolute veto power, I would choose the party which has the strongest interest in seeing the Afghan effort succeed. That party would not be Russia.
By
Todd Dugdale , at 8:41 AM
Iran or Russia? Tough call. I don't think either of them want more permanent US bases on their doorstep.
By
Anonymous, at 11:13 AM
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