November 19,
2008: Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants to make peace with the Taliban the
Afghan way. That means granting amnesty to guys who have prices on their heads.
Taliban leader Mullah Omar is wanted by the U.S. for war crimes, and a reward
of $10 million will be paid to anyone who brings him in. There are dozens of
other Taliban leader the U.S. will pay a lot of money to capture, and
prosecute. Many of those rewards are a million dollars or more. International
war crimes prosecutors would also like to get their hands on senior Taliban
leaders.
Karzai is
telling the rest of the world to take a hike. If they don't like the way he
deals with the Taliban, foreign troops are invited to leave. Even with this
approach, which is pretty much how Afghans have settled situations like this
for centuries, Karzai is having a hard time convincing the senior Taliban guys
that the deal will survive. That's because, in the West, similar deals made
over the past few decades have been later upturned by righteous seekers of
justice. All well and good, but that is getting people killed by tyrants who
see no alternative but to go down fighting, and killing. A life-saving deal
isn't a deal unless it is kept.
