A new report by a leading American media outlet says the US military and civilian leadership have abandoned hope of a peace deal with the Taliban. This was key to surge strategy by Obama Administration to give a blow to the Taliban and militarily force them for a negotiated settlement. But now the plan has been scaled back. According to a report in NY Times, the US hopes of peace deal have been left to be worked out by Afghans after bulk of the US and NATO troops withdraw in 2014.
The attempts of peace talks received a major blow when the Obama Administration faced criticism in Washington regarding the prisoners' exchange of notorious Taliban leaders from Guantanamo to an American soldier kidnapped by insurgents in Afghanistan. Without any success on the first confidence building measure, the few Taliban leaders who had expressed serious willingness for talks and a negotiated settlement stepped back. Since then, American officials have failed to restart the Qatar process and now it has been left to Afghans to decide and deal.
It is a major blow to the hopes of a deal to end the conflict in Afghanistan further muddying the waters of uncertainty in quagmire. We had been expressing concerns and skepticism on the process and an exclusive deal-making rush of the Obama Administration. Sooner or later, it had to come to this stage.
On the other hand, the increasing nonstop routine "green-on-blue" insider attacks have seriously undermined the overall exit strategy of the US and NATO, with lack of confidence and trust among ISAF and Afghan National Security Forces at its peak.
NATO Secretary General Fogh Rasmussen has said NATO could accelerate the withdrawal deadline due to the insider attacks. In an exclusive interview with Guardian, the NATO chief says the "green-on-blue" attacks have damaged relationship between ISAF and Afghan forces, undermining the military strategy.
Currently NATO officials and thinkers are busy in debate over finding out the roots of insider attacks. Despite intelligence reports, the issue has not been understood with all its factors and roots. It could be a Taliban strategy to accelerate NATO withdrawal, damage the public image of Afghan National Security Forces and create extreme atmosphere of distrust and lack of confidence among ISAF and Afghan forces.
The uncertainty and failure of NATO strategy has already caused a panic of thought among Afghans who are concerned about a possible resumption of countrywide violence that could lead to civil war after 2014.