Officials reportedly plan to announce a massive “Peace and Reintegration Trust Fund” containing hundreds of millions of dollars to pay off low and middle level Taliban fighters. The funds will come from the United States, Britain and Japan.
The plan has reportedly been in negotiation for weeks and appears to stem from Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s calls to bribe insurgents in hopes of slowing what seems to be an ever growing level of Taliban control over the nation.
Perhaps setting the stage for this announcement, US officials who have been condemning the Taliban as a “cancer” on Afghanistan have over the past few days turned to touting the group’s value as a partner in building a 21st century Afghanistan. Even Gen. Stanley McChrystal now says the Taliban could be “part of the solution.”
But whether the fund is really intended to “reintegrate” the Taliban with the NATO-backed government or not remains to be seen, and several officials are still openly talking of using this fund to “split” the Taliban so they can be defeated. Which may not necessarily be helpful in courting people to accept the pay off.
whats up ? the Taliban running out of funds? nothing like supporting the enemy financially to ensure that the war just keeps going. this is a money laundry for the weapon industry. tax payer money for the enemy to be spend on weapons, nice !!
Gee. "Hundreds of millions of dollars," huh? That's less than one week's cost of the occupation. Sounds like a good deal to me. Except probably the occupation will continue, too.
Why dont we hire AlQuida again ? Less than a100 Alqaida operatives are holding or defeating 150 thousand NATO forces in afganhistan . didnt we train and equip Alguida to defeat the Russians ? We also partnered with AlQuida again in Bosnia and Kosovo. AlQaida is the best terrorists we have ever created in moderen times . Russia thinks we were involved again with Al Quida in Chechena . The Serbs call them NATOs good terrorists .