In the beginning, the Bush administration wanted to paint a direct connection between Al Qaeda and the Taliban, which may or may not be fair, but I believe they also took it a step further and tried to paint the picture - or at least strongly imply - of a direction connection to the Taliban and the September 11th attacks, which of course is ridiculous. Since that time the American public has remained largely ignorant of who the Taliban are, the history of Afghanistan and the events of the war it's self. If asked who the Taliban are, I think it's fair to say, most people would say "terrorists", or something closely along those lines. (I called my sister up and asked her this question and she responded as I expected). If this is the general perception in America, how is it going to look when we try to begin talks with these "terrorists"? Which President is going to be the guy who "gave up" as will certainly be the impression the opposition partly will attempt to paint?
I think by vilifying the Taliban and labeling them as essentially the same as Al Qaeda, it makes bringing the conflict to an end significantly more complicated. The war in Afghanistan remains unpopular, but not nearly as much as Iraq was, and I think generally most people forget we're even there in their day to day lives. I don't feel that there is any real pressure for a President to seek a quick end to the fighting at the expense of dealing with the shit storm certain people will stir up over the thought of negotiating with these radical jihad waging muslims. I can only begin to imagine the headlines FOX news would begin coming up with. With President Obama already having been accused in the past of being sympathetic to the Muslim world (which many Americans, ignorant as they may be, group broadly as an enemy of the United States with little distinction between countries), I don't see how he could ever realistically offer some kind of deal to the Taliban and ever have a chance of being re-elected.
I may be misjudging the American public, but to me it seems that negotiations with the Taliban will put a very bad tastes in the mouths of people who've for ten years have learned very little about Afghanistan and mainly rely on the U.S. media which generally doesn't make any distinction between the Taliban and a true terrorist organization. Even if you accept the Taliban aren't terrorists, still many people take issue with their treatment of women, their brutality toward the Hazara and other genuinely horrific acts they've committed. It seems we're stuck fighting an enemy we can't defeat militarily, and whom we can't compromise with politically. It's a very tricky situation.
An ideal solution would be if we could begin to withdraw and let the Afghan government handle the talks - in that way the American leadership would be somewhat shielded from accusations of caving to the Taliban or something along those lines. In order for that to happen though, it would require that Afghanistan build up a strong army capable of maintaining the government in the event of continued fighting - otherwise if America withdraws the Taliban would have little insentive to negotiate if they sense they can defeat the Afghan government - in which case we've come full circle back to the civil war of the mid 1990's.
So while the fighting continues on the ground, and all of the vast challenges that face Afghanistan, it seems if America wants to end its involvement there soon we have to not only find a way to begin talks with the Taliban but perhaps more challengingly find a way to make those talks politically palatable at home. Nothing is easy about Afghanistan...
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