British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has offered his support to Afghanistan’s plan to talk to moderate Taliban.

He spoke at a debate organised by the BBC with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, ahead of a conference on Afghanistan.

Both leaders said the offer of talks was only to non-extremist Taliban who could renounce violence.

PM Gordon Brown is amongst the first to back in what is seen to be the new shift in strategy in Afghanistan. This offer of talking to the ‘moderate’ Taliban seems very baffling as to how serious this new plan could be.

To get something straight here, who is moderate and who isn’t? And I’m guessing that the Taliban leader Mullah Omar wouldn’t be included in this new formula. If that is the case one begs the question how on earth do you plan to get out of Afghanistan without either defeating the Taliban or neutralising them.

He added: “It’s detaching the people who are violently committed to the ideology that we are talking about here - if you can detach the others and persuade them that they should be part of the democratic process, that they should renounce violence and that there is a future for them only if they join the democratic process.

The facts are that the Taliban that we know off are leading a violent and relentless campaign against foreign armies, hoping to install their ideological footprint. This is the Taliban we know off. Unless Mr Brown is referring to another Taliban, why propose such an offer with such conditions knowing it wont open a door. You either talk to the Taliban as we know them or you don’t. You can’t have it both ways.

Already the Taliban have been quick to dismiss this offer as another plot by the “invader” i.e the US and its Allies.

Source: BBC and NewsFlick