ISLAMABAD: On his return to Washington, President Barack Obama has suddenly realised that the Afghan Taliban, who have killed thousands of Afghans and foreigners, are not really terrorists but “an armed insurgency”. These are the same Afghan Taliban, including the Haqqani Network, that Washington went hoarse about, telling Pakistan that it must dismantle the network in North Waziristan.To a question, the White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz replied that the US could maintain contacts with the Afghan Taliban, including a prisoners swap, because it was not a terrorist organisation rather an “armed insurgency”. When The News sought the views of the Foreign Office spokesperson about this latest US U-turn and how did Pakistan categorize the Afghan Taliban, she said: “We believe all Afghans have a role in building a peaceful and stable Afghanistan. The National Unity Government has called upon the Taliban to resolve the differences through dialogue and promote the reconciliation process, which we support.” In fact, earlier Security Adviser Sartaj Aziz had upsetKabul when in a BBC interview he said Pakistan need not fight the Afghan Taliban as they had not harmed Pakistan.Consistently, harping on the same tune that there are no good or bad Taliban, the Obama administration has suddenly whitewashed the bad Taliban and today they are no longer terrorists. In fact, on his recent visit US Secretary of State John Kerry in a media briefing had called for action against all militant groups, including the Afghan Taliban, the Haqqani Network and the Lashkar- e-Toiba. In the same briefing Sartaj Aziz had also said the military operation was one which would see “Action against all terrorist groups continues indiscriminately”.Obama’s latest U-turn was taken note of in New Delhi where current affairs programmes discussed the change in Obama’s definition of a terrorist. The White House deputy secretary explained how the US saw terrorists. “They (Afghan Taliban) do carry out tactics that are akin to terrorism, they do pursue terror attacks in an effort to advance their agenda. What’s also true though is that it is important to draw a distinction between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda”, he added.Both the Afghan Taliban, Pakistan Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Pakistani Jihadi groups have slaughtered thousands of men, women and children and continue to do so. It would be an insult to the dead to define any such group as not being a terrorist organization. While it is understandable that the US is in the midst of talks with the Afghan Taliban with the help of Kabul and the ISI which if successful will bring about peace and stability not only in Afghanistan, but also in the entire region. At the same time, the US has to admit that they were defeated by the Afghan Taliban and now they are ready to talk to terrorists.No surprise that there has been no comment from New Delhi so far.
