AFGHANISTAN: “We’re Sick of War: A Taliban Leader Risks His Life to Point Out a New Route to Peace,” by Tom Coghlan, London Times, 15 April 2009
Facing another bloody summer of fighting in Helmand province, the Taliban commander uttered words that could cost him his life. “We all want peace. We want to put down our guns,” he said quietly.
As the conflict enters its eighth summer Nato is hoping that it can exploit such popular disillusion. Mullah Mansoor (not his real name), however, is simply looking for a way out. “Local people do not like the Taliban or the Western forces, they even don’t like us local Taliban” he conceded. “They say to us, ‘if you want to go to Paradise fight in the desert, fight in the mountains but don’t fight in my house’. My wish is just to have peace and security in my area.”
If Mansoor’s position is widely held within the Taliban community, this is the type of fissure that the U.S. military will exploit.
The article states that Mansoor is a “…mid-level Taliban commander,” which begs the question: How widely held is his position within the Taliban?”
There are a number of challenges to solving the AF-PAK problem, every opportunity to create daylight between the Taliban and the people of Afghanistan, and the Taliban and the U.S. goal of a stable region should be exploited. After all, exploiting mid-level leader disenchantment with their current situation is how the Awakening movement started in Iraq.
In non-conventional military operations it is exceedingly difficult to know when and where opportunities for success will present themselves, and even more difficult to measure the effectiveness of those opportunities once identified. It’s difficult to know where the “tipping point” will be reached, and what little pieces of the puzzle will lead to it.
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