KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Members of the Canadian military who have been encouraging low- and mid-level Taliban to talk with Afghan authorities were out of line, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said yesterday.
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"They certainly don't speak for the government of Canada," MacKay said from Halifax. He repeated the Conservatives' hardline stand that Canada does not negotiate directly with terrorists.
The idea that Canadian soldiers would be working with Afghans to encourage militants in the war-ravaged province to lay down their weapons and talk has won high praise in Kandahar City. But MacKay said reconciliation isn't something that Canadians can make happen, saying it's an "initiative that must be led by" Afghans.
Just so that there's no confusion as to whether Canada has a policy of talking to the Taliban. Some have suggested that there is such a policy, but that was just some frontline commanders/soldiers going outside the scope of their mandate.
As far as I'm concerned, there shall be no talks with terrorists unless and until they surrender unconditionally. Fat chance with most of them, unfortunately. The Taliban are far too zealously, supremacistically hateful to make peace. But I do wish that they would miraclously see the light and abandon their hatred for those who aren't perfectly "Islamic". Can't hurt to wish for miracles, can it? It's ok to hope for the failure of the Devil, who clearly is behind the likes of the Taliban and what they do.
