Policy — Taliban’s Elite, Aided by NATO, Join Talks for Afghan Peace

Key highlights:

• Taliban Quetta and Peshawar Shura and Haqqani Network are participating in Afghan peace talks
• NATO/ISAF is providing transport and security to delegates from safe-havens to Kabul
• Delegates are senior members

Analysis:  These talks have become a necessary component of an overall strategy to obtain a political solution because a viable military solution does not exist – we cannot “kill/capture” our way to victory in Afghanistan.

Policy — Petraeus rewrites the playbook in Afghanistan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/18/AR2010101803596.html

Key Highlights:

• Ignatius argues that Petreaus is applying a two-part approach to his Afghan strategy – “shooting more, increasing special operations raids and bombings on Taliban commanders, but talking more by endorsing peace talks and providing security for participants.
• Ignatius argues that Petreaus is putting distance between COIN ethos of protecting the populace and actually conducting a more enemy centric fight. (I.E.  Less COIN, more CT and begs the question, then why the surge?)
• Ignatius argues that Petreaus will finesse a way to add more time to the clock past July 2011.

Analysis:  If Counter-terrorism (CT) operations are the key to success, then why is ISAF/NATO still fighting COIN?

Policy — Troops chafe at restrictive rules of engagement, talks with Taliban

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Troops-chafe-at-restrictive-rules-of-engagement_-talks-with-Taliban-1226055-105202284.html#ixzz12taWBBqF

Key Highlights:

• “If they use rockets to hit the [forward operating base] we can’t shoot back because they were within 500 meters of the village. If they shoot at us and drop their weapon in the process we can’t shoot back,” said Spc. Charles Brooks, 26, a U.S. Army medic with 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, in Zabul province.
• “I don’t think the military leaders, president or anybody really cares about what we’re going through,” said Spc. Matthew “Silver” Fuhrken, 25, from Watertown, N.Y. “I’m sick of people trying to cover up what’s really going on over here. They won’t let us do our job. I don’t care if they try to kick me out for what I’m saying — war is war and this is no war. I don’t know what this is.”
• “If we walk away, cut a deal with the Taliban, desert the people who needed us most, then this war was pointless,” said Pvt. Jeffrey Ward, with 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment, who is stationed at Forward Operating Base Bullard in southern Afghanistan. “Everyone dies for their own reasons but it’s sad to think that our friends, the troops, have given their lives for something we’re not going to see through.” Other soldiers agreed. They said they feared few officials in the Pentagon understand the reality on the ground.

Analysis:  Critical game-changing top-level strategic and operational decisions and actions are taking place in Afghanistan, and it appears, at least in Zabul Province, that some troopers are not being kept informed, nor being provided the purpose behind their current mission.