What is needed here is a remedial lesson. Let's call it, "Taliban for Dummies."President Barack Obama says he hopes U.S. troops can identify moderate elements of the Taliban and move them toward reconciliation.
[ . . . ]
There may be opportunities to reach out to moderates in the Taliban, but the situation in Afghanistan is more complicated than the challenges the American military faced in Iraq, Obama said.
U.S. troops were able to persuade Sunni Muslim insurgents in Iraq to cooperate in some instances because they had been alienated by the tactics of al-Qaida terrorists.
The Taliban are, by definition, extremists, unlike Sunni Muslims, some (not all) of whom joined an insurgency not of their own making and then realized they had aligned themselves with something they didn't want to be a part of. So the analogy between Taliban and Sunni insurgents is flawed. A better analogy would be between the Taliban and the Nazis. Can you imagine Franklin Roosevelt talking about teaming up with "moderate Nazis?" Of course not, because there was no such thing.
It's almost as if Obama has fabricated a fantasy situation that he can handle, because he hasn't the faintest idea how to handle the situation that actually exists.
This guy needs help, and fast.
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