Afghan Opposition urges caution in Taliban talks; Administration responds with typical hypocrisy

From the AP:

Three prominent Afghan opposition leaders on Monday warned against trusting the Taliban in peace talks, saying they are "not honest."

Former Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum and two other members of the Afghan National Front said it would be "naive" to exclude the possibility that the Taliban are using negotiations to assuage the United States government while troops are being withdrawn, while planning to "resurge" after they are gone at the end of 2014.

The comments come a week after the Taliban announced plans to open a political office in Qatar to hold talks with the U.S.

The Afghans met with a group of four members of the U.S. House of Representatives in a follow-up to a December conference in Bonn for private talks not sanctioned by the U.S. State Department.

Asked about the meeting, the State Department said it had suggested to the members of Congress they should meet Afghan representatives in Afghanistan and not in Germany.

Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, used the same argument when he initially objected to the US/Taliban negotiations, saying the Taliban should open their political office in Afghanistan, not Qatar. Heh. Why not; if you're going to surrender to the Taliban anyway, why not do it in their home turf?

"We also believe it's always best when our members of Congress can see a broad cross section of Afghan political leaders, not just a slice," [State Dept. spokeswoman] Victoria Nuland said. "But it's within their right to meet with whomever they'd like."

Hmmm, the Afghan opposition leaders made a similar argument when voicing their displeasure with the Obama/Taliban peace talks.

The opposition leaders argued that the talks were flawed because they exclude anti-Taliban Afghans, and risk betraying those Afghans who fought to remove the Taliban from power a decade ago, Reuters reported.

Typical hypocrisy from the Obama administration, but par for the course....

Republican congressman Dana Rohrabacher said he and three fellow congress members joined the talks [with the Afghan opposition leaders] because they fear the United States government might be about to make unacceptable compromises, Reuters reported.

But sadly, nothing is "unacceptable" for this administration - which is why all options remain on the table, including ludicrous, perilous, unimaginable and all unacceptable options.