Noah Shachtman
Security

Obama, Petraeus, McCain Agree: Taliban Talks OK (Updated)

Both Barack Obama and Gen. David Petraeus favor trying to split the Taliban, and “peel off” militants from the main jihadist group, Time’s Joe Klein noted on MSNBC this morning. And a McCain campaign spokesperson says his camp agrees. In recent days, there have been conflicting reports about some less-hostile Taliban representatives gathering for talks […]

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Both Barack Obama and Gen. David Petraeus favor trying to split the Taliban, and "peel off" militants from the main jihadist group, Time's Joe Klein noted on MSNBC this morning. And a McCain campaign spokesperson says his camp agrees.

In recent days, there have been conflicting reports about some less-hostile Taliban representatives gathering for talks in Saudi Arabia, to try to cut a deal with the Kabul government. Observers are skeptical about how much juice these talkin' Taliban really have. But Obama tells Klein that this divide-negotiate-and-conquer approach "is one useful lesson that is applicable from Iraq."

The Sunni awakening changed the dynamic in Iraq fundamentally. It could not have occurred unless there were some contacts and intermediaries to peel off those who are tribal leaders, regional leaders, Sunni nationalists, from a more radical, messianic brand of insurgency. Whether there are those same opportunities in Afghanistan I think should be explored.

Petraeus made similar comments, earlier in the month, at a Heritage Foundation event. "If there are people who are willing to reconcile (with the government), then that would be a positive step in some of these areas that have actually been spiraling downward," he said.

It's unclear to me what John McCain's position is on such talks. He's been generally anti-negotiations. But he certainly is a big Petraeus fan, and endorsed "the same fundamental strategy that succeeded in Iraq." Anyway, I've asked the campaign, and will update when I hear back.

UPDATE: The full transcript of the Time interview is up. And it shows that Obama has embraced another key element of Petraeus' Iraq counterinsurgency – the need to get inside the country's social, cultural, and political networks.

One of the problems that we had and we've historically had, the
Russians historically had it, the British historically had it, is our intelligence there is poor and our understanding of the culture is poor. And our understanding of the tribal and clan ties that exist there are complicated... But what we're going to have to do is to have folks on the ground who do develop that understanding... My impression is that those who have a chance to stay there a little bit longer and develop clear understanding of the formidable complexities are going to achieve a lot more than simply us rotating in folks on a rapid rotation and I think that people on the ground tend to agree with me on that.

UPDATE 2: "There are differences over timing, strategy, etc. But there is consensus that at some point there will need to be an effort to talk with some of these [Taliban] guys and peel off more moderate elements," a McCain campaign source tells Danger Room.

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