Douglas J. Feith Discusses U.S.-Taliban Peace Talks with Frank Gaffney

Frank Gaffney discusses the prospects of U.S.-Taliban peace talks with Former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy (2001-2005), Douglas J. Feith.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

You were inside the Pentagon at the dawn of the War on Terrorism, which of course involved among other things, an attack mounted by Al-Qaeda from Afghanistan with the acquiescence, if not active support, of the Taliban against the U.S. We are currently in the process of negotiating some sort of agreement with the Taliban, which an old friend and colleague of both of ours Zalmey Khalilzad is the negotiator for the United States, that would involve the withdrawal of some number of U.S. forces. The President is now saying he will keep some there, but what is your take on what’s likely to come of this if such an agreement is indeed completed?

DOUGLAS J. FEITH:

I am skeptical about the Taliban fulfilling any promises it makes in these negotiations. We have an important interest in preventing Afghanistan from reverting to a safe haven for terrorists who would target us. I certainly understand the general impatience people have for this to be all over, and wondering when will we have the ability to walk away and stop having to defend ourselves. But as much as that kind of impatience is understandable, I don’t think it is a good basis for strategy, because sometimes you just have to maintain defenses indefinitely to keep your country safe.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

As it has been said, the enemy gets a vote after all.

DOUGLAS J. FEITH:

That’s correct. The idea that we lose patience after a while is a big strategic vulnerability and we are in a peculiar situation where our enemy is not a country, and the circumstances are not such where we can score a victory once and for all. Ever since the War on Terror started, we’ve had this problem that our enemy is a kind of vague collection of terrorist networks—a network of networks. You can’t score the kind of decisive once-and-for-all victory against them, which means you have to continue to deal with the threat that this network poses.

FRANK GAFFNEY:

It seems to me that what we are dealing with is not just a network of networks but an ideology that emanates them and others that use techniques other than terrorism to advance the same sort of supremacist agenda. I think of it as Sharia supremacism, a term coined by Andy McCarthy. It is unfortunate, persistent, widespread, aggressive and almost certainly going to be greatly enabled or encouraged by the perception that one of their cohort, the Taliban, has achieved a strategic victory over their principle enemy.

DOUGLAS J. FEITH:

I think that’s a serious danger. I think it is important to recognize that the network of these jihadist groups are organized in network form as opposed to a corporate hierarchical form. That’s the what makes this such a great strategic challenge- there are a lot of loose connections in many cases among loosely connected groups.