Karzai Calls for Talks With the Taliban

During an October 2006 speech to the Canadian International Centre, Foreign Affairs minister Peter MacKay ridiculed NDP leader Jack Layton for suggesting talks with the Taliban in Afghanistan. MacKay, spouting the popular right-wing talking point, said such talks would only embolden the terrorists. As I pointed out in this September 2006 post, NATO leaders were already holding secret talks with the Taliban in August 2006 according to the Globe and Mail.

I guess we'll have to see what Mr MacKay's reaction is to the news that Hamid Karzai is now suggesting the same thing:

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday offered peace talks with a resurgent Taliban after the bloodiest year since the hardline Islamists were ousted in 2001 and amid warnings of a violent spring offensive.

More than 4,000 people, including about 170 foreign soldiers, died in fighting last year, a year that saw a dramatic jump in suicide bombings as the Taliban and other militants copy tactics from insurgents in Iraq.

Karzai made the offer while speaking at a religious gathering in Kabul on one of the holiest days of the Shia Islamic calendar, but he did not specifically name the Taliban.

"While we are fighting for our honor, we still open the door for talks and negotiations with our enemy who is after our annihilation and is shedding our blood," he told the crowd at the main Shia religious compound in the capital.

Flashbacks:

During Stephen Harper's 2006 year end interview on CTV he said, "peace in the Middle East can never be achieved through dialogue with "genocidal" groups like Hamas and Hezbollah."

In August 2006, my hypocritical tory MP Jason Kenney compared Hezbollah to Nazis, a statement that PM Harper agreed with.

North American right-wingers these days are infamous for using extreme rhetoric when it comes to any suggestion that they encourage or engage in talks between parties involved in conflicts. Witness the ongoing stubbornness in the Bush administration regarding Iran and Syria and the hardline stance they took against bilateral talks with North Korea - a stated policy they have now had to publicly reverse despite the fact that they have actually been holding bilateral talks with North Korea since 2005.

This isn't the first time Karzai has tried to reach out to the Taliban but one wonders if this Conservative government will support Karzai's efforts or will it once again claim that such a move is just appeasement that makes those enemies stronger?