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Time for Afghan Ceasefire!
By maudeaster on 2012-01-03 13:10:54
Over the holidays I had the inevitable conversations with family and friends about my work to stop the carnage in
Afghanistan. I was heartened by the sense that almost everyone thought the Afghan War should end sooner rather than later.
But it seemed to clear to me that people had trouble seeing how to get there. «+ So here are my thoughts
on how to end America’s now longest ever war. As 2012 begins, it is increasingly clear that the US doesn’t have to keep the
agonizing quagmire of the Afghan War going another 2 years. President Obama can boldly regain the initiative in
Afghanistan and reset the clock for bringing our troops and dollars home with one clear action: declare an immediate
US ceasefire. Here are 4 important benefits which would flow from a US ceasefire: 1. Afghan President Karzai needs a
very strong push toward serious political negotiations with the Taliban. In November the US reached a tentative accord
with the Taliban which included a much-sought provision that the Taliban would renounce international terrorism,
effectively committing to a public break with Al-Qaeda. Karzai immediately protested another provision of the accord,
setting up a Taliban office in Qatar, almost scuttling this major progress.
(http://mobile.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE7BP06U20111226) Karzai has since agreed to the Taliban office, but he
needs very strong US pressure to overcome the resistance of northern warlords in his government who if they had their way
would never pursue the reconciliation needed to end this war.2. A ceasefire could reverse the dangerous, downward
spiral in our relations with Pakistan. As Pakistani leaders told Secretary of State Clinton in October, the current US
strategy toward the Taliban of “Fight & Talk” clearly isn’t working — pointing out it’s hard to have negotiations with leaders
you are threatening to kill. The US has eased tensions with Pakistan slightly by its current 3-week cessation of drone strikes
in Pakistan territory, but a ceasefire in Afghanistan would further assure Pakistanis that the US was serious about ending its
fighting on (and sometimes disastrously over) its border. 3. A ceasefire would mean an end to the civilian deaths from
house raids and night strikes which infuriate Afghans, bolster the resistance to the US occupation and and create long-term
hatred of the US. 4. A ceasefire would speed up the time that 2 billion $ /month of our taxpayer money could be
redirected to the crying needs at home — jobs, education, healthcare, infrastructure, and creating a sustainable economy.
We know many Obama foreign policy advisers are pressing for a hastened US troop drawdown — the Washington Post
reports for example that Vice-President Biden is calling for getting down to 20,000 US troops really quickly.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-deal-with-taliban-breaks-
a
down/2011/12/20/gIQAntAXCP_story.html). ~~ It’s my new year’s wish that our representatives in DC
— Senators Schumer & Gillibrand, Congressmen Tonko & Gibson — will join these White House advisors and all of us in
pressing President Obama to speed up the US withdrawal process by using the ceasefire option to get to serious peace talks
now.
