The “no-way” knee jerk reaction one would normally have to reading such an incendiary headline is unfortunately tempered by reality. Yes,… sadly; Way.
To understand this article outlining how the Obama administration could possibly even fathom to use Al-Qardawi, the spiritual leader for the Muslim Brotherhood, to negotiate with the Taliban, you must first remember the comment from Vice-President Biden that drew jaws to the floor like 10G magnets under a mouth full of fillings.
Biden said two weeks ago “the Taliban were not our enemy“, remember that? Obviously there was considerable backlash from those who are indeed connected to reality, and who do actually recognize that bullets being shot, and IED bombs being deployed to kill U.S. forces in Afghanistan, are being fired at us and set by the Taliban. But I digress.
So here is an interesting article outlining the motive that Joe Biden would have to begin to change the narrative: (Via IPT) Radical Islamist cleric and longtime Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide Yusuf al-Qaradawi serves as a “key mediator in secret talks between the U.S. and the Taliban,” according to unnamed government sources referenced in a report published late Wednesday in The Hindu.
In early December, the report said, “Qaradawi helped draw a road map for a deal between the Taliban and the United States, aimed at giving the superpower a face-saving political settlement ahead of its planned withdrawal from Afghanistan.” The United States is expected to begin pulling out of Afghanistan in 2014.
The Qaradawi-brokered deal calls for significant American commitments, including “the release of prisoners still held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay, the lifting of United Nations sanctions on its leadership and its recognition as a legitimate political group.” In return, the Hindu‘s sources say, the Taliban would be “expected to sever its links to transnational organisations like al-Qaeda, end violence and eventually share power with the Afghan government.” (read more)
So another piece of the Obama foreign puzzle falls neatly into place.
The first way you exit under the guise of victory is to change the enemy, see Iraq last month, and note the Taliban this month. This administration is getting too predictable when you set traditional common sense aside and look at what a radical President of an unexceptional nation would do.
So think about this, at the same time the Obama administration instructed the CIA and military to stop drone missions in the Afghan/Pakistan border area, they simultaneously were withdrawing troops from Iraq and secretly using Al-Qardawi to negotiate with the Taliban. Can you see the big picture and even bigger objective?
Go back and look at the calendar again. Remember the Obama – Erdogan (Turkish Prime Minister) hug at the G20 summit in France that drew puzzled looks from a quizzical, yet trusting media? Yup. Matches right up with this timeline and strategy doesn’t it.
Again, I repeat my prior prediction(s) / opinion:
The lay down of drones is to appease Pakistan ahead of the looming attack on Iran. The incidental outcome is to embolden al-Qaeda.- Changing the optics of who our enemy is allows Obama to frame victory with his foreign policy in Iraq/Afghanistan. The media will totally obfuscate the resulting decline to hardline Radical Islamist anarchy (see Egyptian, Libyan, Tunisian and now Iraqi optic model). *One ridiculous incidental outcome is the Taliban are free to torture women, deny them medical care (because by law they are not allowed to see male doctors), and deny women the right to an education (hence there are no female doctors).
- al-Qaeda will be ignored. As in, not be spoken of. An invisible enemy free to carry out previous factional activity from al-Qaeda Arabian Peninsular Yemeni base, and al-Qaeda North Africa strategically well supplied with Libyan black market arms. And lest we forget the never to be openly discussed al-Shabaab contingent/alignment which has spread from Africa to Mexico and into the United States (see assassination plot in DC on Saudi ambassador).
- The media will forget Hillary Clinton describing Syrian Leader Assad as “moderate”, and ignore the Israeli diplomats expelled from Turkey, and Egypt.
Then, to insure his re-election bid, deflect valid criticism, increase his credibility, change the narrative of failure into success, and earn another measure of false strength and leadership, Obama will attack the Nuclear Sites in Iran. He will be once again exalted as a “Gutsy Caller”, and provided yet another -albeit longer- round of football spiking as The Commander In Chief Bus tours the country to adoring crowds now fully armed with foreign policy strength talking points in one hand, and a new catchy slogany sign in the other.
