Twisted Logic at the NYT: Time to Negotiate with the Taliban

More twisted logic at the NYT. Richard Barrett coordinator of the United Nations Al Qaeda-Taliban monitoring team (whatever that is) says that is time to sit down and chat with the Taliban. The reason? The Taliban leadership has been so hammered that they are finally ready to talk about some sort of settlement. As he writes in the New York Times:

“The Taliban’s command-and-control networks have stood up relatively well since their resurgence in 2006, but the campaign against their senior and middle leadership by American, Afghan and other special forces, aided by a much-improved intelligence picture and supported by drones, has taken a huge toll. The Taliban have not just lost many key commanders; the surviving senior leaders are forced to keep out of sight and now rarely travel within Afghanistan.”

Excuse me, but isn’t this a reason to keep doing what we’re doing–rather than changing course? We’ve got the Taliban leadership on the ropes. The goal should not be to come to terms with these thugs–but to defeat them. Peel off local commanders and turn them to our side? Yes. But negotiate with the Taliban ringleaders? No way.