Afghanistan

Found this on the BBC news today - Obama hints at talks with Taleban

I went to a lecture on Friday evening in which a very esteemed and frighteningly clever Professor from Harvard gave a talk on Barack Obama and the American Democratic Tradition. Afterwards most of the questions focused on the prospects of changing the American political landscape, especially after hopes were raised to epically high proportions during his election campaign. My own view on that is that he will find it incredibly hard, a Democrat president will always struggle immensely, even with a majority, as they have to fight both the Republicans and their own right, let alone a cultural hegemony dominated still by Reaganism - or in this country, Thatcherism. Although, a crisis does provide opportunity, I personally don't sense that the institutions which create our political culture in the UK are ready for the end of the 1980s consensus, and I suspect the same is true of the USA. (see Gramsci on culture and hegemony, I think the guy's work on culture is fantastic)

Anyway, this story at the top is linked, because a friend afterwards mentioned that he wanted to ask about Afghanistan, as it seemed that change wouldn't be a short time coming there, in fact if anything, the fresh injection of more US troops suggested more of the same in that troubled land. I had wondered several times before about how exactly the war against the Taleban was supposed to be won? I have been studying Vietnam recently, and although casualties are a lot lower (on the US side anyway), it seems that the war in Afghanistan against the Taleban could be just as unwinnable, if the US is looking for a conventional victory. Unfortunately, unlike Vietnam, the war was sparked by a direct attack on the USA itself, which means that these sorts of questions could be resisted even more than they were in Vietnam. But I cannot see how this insurgency can be fully defeated and the Taleban banished forever, short of devastating the whole of Afghanistan. Thus, they will have to negotiate at some point. So hopefully, talks with the Taleban could be a very small step on the road to change in Afghanistan.