Relegated to sideline status, the Afghan situation has every potential for a huge blowup.
Does everybody remember Mullah Omar and the Taliban? Omar, who was Bin Laden's father-in-law, the guy who turned Afghanistan into the headquarters and main training base for Al Quaeda, as well as the guy who refused to turn over Bin Laden? Omar, the guy who was pleased at 9-11, who inside knowledge? Omar, the guy who ran an Afghanistan that repressed women, scorned secularism and executed people for heresy and blasphemy?
Now he's been invited by Karzai to participate in the government.
Karzai offers to include Taliban in government
Given the strength of his hand, however, Omar apparently now feels confident enough to reject the offer.
KABUL, Sept. 30: Afghanistan’s Muslim extremist Taliban today rejected an offer of peace talks from President Hamid Karzai, demanding first the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country.
"Our position has not changed regarding the peace talks," said Taliban spokesman Mr Kari Yussif Ahmadi. "As long as the Afghan government lacks its own authority and planning and as long as there are foreign forces in Afghanistan, we are not ready for talks."
As a consequence, what is our intrepid US government doing to stave off that which is going to be seen as the greatest blunder of the clumsily managed War on Terror?
After several years of putting out rewards which were ignored, we're now taking the foolish step of expanding that program.
Large Rewards Listed
The U.S. military has launched a new "Most Wanted" campaign offering rewards of up to $200,000 for information leading to the capture of 12 Taliban and al-Qaida leaders.
Posters and billboards are being put up around eastern Afghanistan with the names and pictures of the 12, with reward amounts ranging from $20,000 to $200,000.
"We're trying to get more visibility on these guys like the FBI did with the mob," said Lt. Col. Rob Pollock, a U.S. officer at the main American base in Bagram. "They operate the same way the mob did, they stay in hiding."
That which hasn't worked before is not likely to work in the future.
Look for this situation to deteriorate even more rapidly over the next 3 weeks.