Obama reaches out to Taliban - Taliban kills 28 Pakistanis

From the AFP:

Hundreds of heavily armed Taliban besieged a Pakistani checkpost on the Afghan border for a second day Thursday, killing 23 police and five civilians in the deadliest fighting for months.

The Al-Qaeda-linked group... is said to have long-standing ties to Pakistan's intelligence services...

A report by the Center for Global Development said that US assistance to Pakistan had become "muddled" with a lack of clear goals and leadership and pressure "to do too much, too quickly."...

A "lack of clear goals and leadership in the Obama administration, and pressure to do too much, too quickly" would also explain why the administration is lifting the Taliban Sanctions Regulations issued under former President Bill Clinton and why it is pressing the UN to lift sanctions against 18 former senior Taliban figures - including the former head of the regime's religious police, Mohammed Qalamuddin, whose officers were responsible for some of the worst atrocities under the Taliban regime. It would also elucidate why the administration is conducting negotiations with the Taliban terrorists.

With a "lack of clear goals", and a weak commander in Chief running the show, the Obama administration is trying "to do too much, too quickly", hoping for a quick exit strategy that would bring this war to an end - albeit an abysmal end - and thereby facilitate a 2012 election victory for Obama.

Afghanistan would likely self destruct as a result of this strategy, but ultimately Obama would win in 2012. And that's a pretty impressive achievement for a weak Commander in Chief, who lacks true leadership qualities.