‘Let's talk to the Taliban’: the growing debate

The argument that the Afghanistan government and its western allies should be talking to 'moderate' members of the Taliban, with a view to including them in the long-term governance of the country, is gaining ground.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband, speaking at Nato headquarters in Brussels yesterday, suggested Taliban insurgents could be offered incentives to 'change sides', including seats in the Afghan government and even the chance to return to farming land in their villages.

He stressed there was no chance of negotiations with the Taliban leader Mullah Omar - who, he said, had made a 'choice for global jihad' - or with those who seek to kill British soldiers. But there was a case for wooing the moderates - or what some commentators call the 'second tier' of the Taliban.

The Daily Mail quoted a senior Government source saying 'most' Taliban fighters could be won over.

"The overwhelming majority of those in the insurgency, and certainly the overwhelming majority of those on the ground, are people who are not ideologically committed at all costs to the establishment of an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan," the source said. "They are Afghans and they, in principle, can be brought back in to peaceful politics and their communities."

President Hamid Karzai also offered an olive branch to the Taliban on Monday. In an interview with the Associated Press, he called for a dialogue with Taliban members who are not affiliated with al-Qaeda and who are willing to repudiate violence "and announce that publicly".

However, he was not prepared to discuss the key Taliban demand - a timetable for the withdrawal of all foreign troops - because he believes their continued presence is in the national interest.

The eagerness for talks with the Taliban came as British military commanders declared that Operation Panther's Claw - a month of heavy fighting, in which 11 British soldiers died - had succeeded in driving the Taliban from a considerable swathe of territory in Helmand province.

It also came in the week Gen Stanley McChrystal, the new US commander in Afghanistan, is due to give a briefing to President Barack Obama about what the US might do next in Afghanistan. It is likely to include a request for more troops from Nato allies, including Britain.

But while Obama's envoy to the region, Richard Holbrooke, has said bringing more Taliban fighters into the political process should be a priority, is is by no means certain that McChrystal will advocate negotiating with the insurgents at any level.

As military historian Max Hastings writes today, "The most important audience David Miliband hopes to reach with yesterday's speech is in the White House. Since his inauguration, President Obama has declared his commitment to Afghanistan. But more than six months later, his administration still lacks a plausible plan for salvaging the country."

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:Richard Holbrooke, US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, talking to the BBC: "There is room in Afghan society for all those fighting with the Taliban who renounce al-Qaeda and its extremist allies, who lay down their arms and who participate in the political life of the country."

Max Hastings, military historian, in the Daily Mail: "All the officers I know perceive dialogue with the Taliban as essential to salvage anything from this intractable war. Miliband's speech - 'better late than never', as a soldier put it to me - makes a belated start on a process shamefully neglected by Gordon Brown."

Patrick Mercer, Tory MP for Newark and a former Army officer: "Anybody who doesn't understand that counter insurgency warfare is not just about bombs and bullets, but about empathising with your enemy's aims and changing them to suit your aims, is plain naive."

Mark Stone on Sky News: "It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that David Miliband is suggesting dialogue with 'reconcilable' elements of the Taliban. Sections of Hamid Karzai's Afghan government and figures within the Taliban hierarchy have been meeting and talking, if not actually agreeing, for some time now. It's been done on the quiet and with the help of the Saudi Arabian government... But while the Taliban think there is a chance of winning on the battlefield, they'll never talk round the table. And that's why British military success in the Taliban's heartland of Helmand is so important." ·