U.S. Entering Direct Talks With Taliban

[tekisui]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - The United States has entered into direct talks with leaders of the Taliban in Afghanistan, but contacts are exploratory and not yet a peace negotiation, according to an article on Saturday in The New Yorker magazine.

The article, citing people briefed on the talks, said the talks are to assess who in the Taliban leadership, if anyone, might engage in formal peace negotiations and under what conditions.

"They're exploratory, at least as I understand them," Steve Coll, the article's author, said in an interview on National Public Radio.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has held sporadic talks with current and former Taliban members, but with little apparent result.

more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/19/us-usa-afghanistan-talks-idUSTRE71I2HL20110219

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. I am confused. Can anyone enlighten me?

During the Bushwahhhh era, we invaded Iraq to catch Bin laden, remember?
then we went to Afghanistan to look for him.

September 17, 2001
Osama bin Laden is the "prime suspect" in last Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington and the United States wants to capture him "dead or alive," President Bush said Monday.
http://articles.cnn.com/2001-09-17/us/bush.powell.terrorism_1_bin-qaeda-terrorist-attacks?_s=PM:US



Then in 2002, Bush was quoted as saying
"We haven't heard much from him. And I wouldn't necessarily say he's at the center of any command structure. And, again, I don't know where he is," Bush said during the 2002 news conference. "I'll repeat what I said. I truly am not that concerned about him. I know he is on the run.

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/oct/14/nation/na-osama14
( Lots of youtube videos showing those comments)


then we were told " only about 250 Al-Kada" were even in Afghanistan, but they had fled to Pakistan,
so that is why were killing wedding parties.
Except when a couple of those surprisingly mobile Al-Kada showed up in Yemen, so we had to bomb there too.

THEN we started hearing we were bombing whole villages in Afghanistan because of the Taliban.

Suddenly Bin_laden is no threat, Al-Kada is gone, but now the Taliban are the enemy?????