Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses the 2002 Taliban reconciliation deal scuttled by the US, which refused to guarantee the safety of Taliban leaders returning from exile in Pakistan to participate in some sort of unity government; clear evidence that the Taliban’s willingness to provide ‘safe haven’ for al-Qaeda has been exaggerated; how the Bush administration’s quick-fix Afghan plan allowed a quick transition to the preferred war in Iraq; and the Pakistani pressure brought to bear on Mullah Omar to continue the insurgency and resist US demands to hand over bin Laden.
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