Dangerous Taliban strategy

The international community's planned strategy for the London Conference on Afghanistan which consists in winning over the radical Islamist Taliban movement with money is problematic, writes the daily Postimees: "The government of [Afghan President] Hamid Karzai doesn't trust anyone, so the international sponsors are seeking direct contact with the local powers. Money is part of the strategy that has been drawn up under the leadership of the UK, the US and Germany. The plan is to pay off the Taliban, village by village, tribe by tribe. However the problem is that the Taliban are only being offered what that can be sure of getting anyway if they are patient enough. 'You have clocks, we have time', the rebels mock. The Pashtuns by no means live in the Middle Ages, as is often believed in the West, but inhabit their own time and space where Western coordinates don't apply."

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