Holbrooke: Taliban acceptable if they renounce al Qaeda

In an interview with Spiegel, special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke, stated that the Obama administration is ready to invite taliban who renounce al Qaeda back in to Afghanistan's social/political fold.

There is a serious deficit of understand of what and who we are fighting. The taliban, al Qaeda, al Shabaab, MILF, Hezbollah, Hamas, etc, are just different brands of the same product...islamic imperialism. The Long War Journal notes that al Qaeda is "tip of a much longer jihadist spear".

Forgiving certain taliban if they renounce al Qaeda will not bring us any closer to a military victory in Afghanistan. If we want victory over islamic jihadists we need to treat them as part of the same problem...radical islam.

From Daily Times

LAHORE/WASHINGTON: Taliban can rejoin the “social and political fabric of Afghanistan” if they renounce Al Qaeda, US special envoy Richard Holbrooke said on Tuesday.

In an interview with SPIEGEL, Holbrooke said, “Majority of Taliban do not support Mullah Omar’s extreme views and that there is room for them to rejoin the social and political fabric of Afghanistan if they renounce Al Qaeda and reintegrate peacefully into Afghanistan. And that is a major part” of the Unites States policies.

He said Washington was not seeking to destroy “every person who supports the Taliban”, adding that “Our goal is to destroy Al Qaeda, a terrorist organisation with global reach which attacked the United States, which conducted attacks in London, Madrid and Bali, and Mumbai and Islamabad, which supports attacks in Afghanistan through other groups.”