Karzai’s Jirga has Domestic Support

Karzai’s Jirga has Domestic SupportHamid Karzai may just be able to pull off peace in Afghanistan if things continue to go the way that they are going now. I’m not getting overly optimistic because there is a lot of work to be done and there is a lot of room for failure. If he is careful every step of the way I can see peace happening there.

I’m looking at the recent peace conference (jirga), which he just conducted in Kandahar. He didn’t get all that he wanted but he got off to a really good start. Whatever he told the attendees must have been the right thing because many of them had an openly positive response. This at least kind of gets the ball rolling in the right direction and if he is smart he will be able to build on this initial progress.

There are several major issues which could become stopping points if he can’t find a way around them but I am sure that he will. One is getting an opportunity to meet privately with Taliban leaders. There are several reasons why they couldn’t attend. First of all they have bounties on their heads, they also refuse to negotiate as long as US forces remain in the country.

Delegates raised some of their concerns at the conference which are legitimate. From what I saw they were not unreasonable. We need for all of you to keep hope alive for our Operation Enduring Freedom ring customers who are serving there now. Keep hoping that this thing will work itself out and that they will be coming ome soon.