The truth is a bit more complicated than this. Some factions of the Taliban have been sending out peace feelers for years. Mullah Omar also produced a list of demands, some of which were quite reasonable. Regardless of how disgusted people on the left may be by the Taliban, they (The Taliban) are not going away and they do represent the views of some (a minority of) Afghans. The peace process should be supported if we genuinely care about the future that Afghans face. "Troops out now" isn't enough. When the Soviet troops were pulled there was a bloodbath. We should support a peace process that will reduce the chances of that happening again.

Without outside interference there is no great difference between these two tyrannical factions and it makes perfectly good sense that they share power, split the profits and screw the Afghan people together.

In October 2001 Bush rejected an offer from the Taliban to discuss turning over Bin Laden in return for the cessation of US bombing in Afghanistan. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5) While it is impossible to say what such discussions might have led to, it is clear what nine years of war have produced.

Trudy Rubin says that up till now she had a clear idea of what could be accomplished by military force, and I suppose she means what the administration has up to now stated, "the elimination of the Taliban." Now , waist deep in the deep muddy she is not so sure. Maybe Trudy should go over there and spend a little more time to find out who the Taliban are and what place religious authority has in Pashtun culture. Eliminating the Taliban was always a ridiculous goal unless you want to exterminate 40 million people, (I'm sure it's been considered) At least Karsai knows a bit more of who they are and if we keep escalating the war, who they will be. The new functional definition of the Taliban--anyone who doesn't like the US as a foreign occupying power and is willing to fight them. Gee Trudy, by that definition you might begin to get an insight about what it would take to "win" this war. Maybe the administration will start to understand too. But our Generals never will.

Negotiated peace in Orwellian doublespeak simply means the Taliban agrees to be our thugs and agree to the TAPI pipeline. What the hell is this negotiated peace bull pucky? It is their country, not ours! We have absolutely no business being there in the first place! We were not wanted by the majority of the Afghanistan people,what gives the U.S.A. the temerity and the right to the perdition of a foreign country where we are seen as the enemy. They do not want to be occupied by a foreign power that claims to be bringing them freedom and democracy at the point of a gun, they just want to be left alone; no different than America being attacked and occupied by a foreign power that says it is murdering innocent Americans for altruistic reasons.

"The negotiations involve agreements to allow Taliban leaders positions in the Afghan government and the withdrawal of US and NATO forces, the newspaper said."

Dollars to doughnuts, this is an exquisite hoax, timed to appear just before the election (though how many 'Murkans will ever read or hear anything about this?). The USA is never getting out of Afghanistan voluntarily. So even if these talks are serious and are actually taking place, they will somehow be sabotaged. The Afghans (and the Iraqis) will eventually push an exhausted United States out of their countries. Shears' Law states that there is always the unexpected. Out there in the political and military ether is something the Obamas and Petraeuses have never seen coming and will never see. After "it" happens, we will be on our way out, lock, stock and whiskey barrel.

Woodward says that Obama's generals couldn't come up with an alternative to what they are currently doing. This may be what Obama and the generals had in mind all along. We've learned a little bit about nation buillding in the last two conflicts, so maybe this should be applied on a trial basis on Tennessee or some down and out state in the US.

Think about it....

How and why would a maniacal introverted madcap religious group (and I don't mean the USA), be anywhere near 'negotiating' a supposed peace agreement unless they can once more obtain total control of the lands & people it considers must need an iron rod of religious sharia law & assorted associated insane laws in order to be allowed to live under their rule?

Under the taliban you couldn't fly a kite but could very easily shoot bullets and missiles through their gods airspace. Women were beaten down into becoming objects under bedsheets and it was best to stay at home, let alone trying to be educated which could wind them up dead.

There's no way the taliban would ever accept a power-sharing deal unless it meant they could once more dominate great swaths of land & people or at least hold the hope that they could once again do so.

Perhaps the USA and it's pipeline dreamers think they could use the taliban (the USA has a constant record of using people worldwide and then either abandoning them or killing them), and they would use the taliban much as the nazi party used the SS by keeping control by means of terror and death.

It would all be in-house and would seemingly keep the USA's hands 'clean'.

The pipeline dreamers would stipulate that the taliban could have carte blanche in doing anything they pleased just as long as the pipeline was always exempt and protected. It's a situation the Chinese have done very well worldwide by supposedly funding a countries civil works needs just as long as it has total control over contracted resource extractions, and never mind that the bribe money would be largely siphoned off to corrupt officials because the Chinese have an off-hand approach and won't interfere at all no matter what is done just as long as the resources keep coming their way.

Of course the USA would employ a middleman (here it's their puppet Karzai) to maintain distance and appear to be not involved but we all know that's bullshit.

Incidentally, notice in the news recently that there's been concerted and successful attacks on supply convoys heading to Afghanistan? -- Did the USA or its mercenaries not pay off the taliban for last month to allow the convoys through? - Or is the taliban upping it's attacks to barter for more protection payments from the USA? - Or is it a ploy by the US to garner support for even more bottomless funding in order to 'get the supplies through', especially around election time?

Also in Afghanistan is the mujahadeen veterans who actually believes they drove out the soviets in that past war of occupation through fighting rather than the reality that the soviets were financially running on empty and their own empire was on it's way to collapse.

There's two implacable mindsets.....one is the religious nut job taliban which thirsts for absolute power, and the other is the just as crazy USA but who under many guises and delusions tries to appear rational whilst in engages in hell bent race to be the complete dominant world power at any cost.

One side wants to win at any cost to become religious gods-on-earth and the other wants to win at any cost for resources raping & empire building. And they wonder why they can't find a compromise......

"There's no way the taliban would ever accept a power-sharing deal unless it meant they could once more dominate great swaths of land & people or at least hold the hope that they could once again do so."

"the religious nut job taliban which thirsts for absolute power"

How do you know all this? The same way we "knew" during the Cold War that the Soviet Union sought absolute power and would never compromise? Successful demonization.