PJ Media

It’s really all about the politics of winning hearts and minds. The only way fighting will stop, is if local government – or elders – permit it. The truce signing during this shura was the honorable way for the British forces to show their intent and see what the real people in power – the elders – would do in response. It is obvious who the elders support if the Taliban are still in power there. Southern Afghan politics follows clan and tribal custom. It has nothing to do with what Kabul has to say. The local elders have spoken, the Taliban now rule in Musa Qali and the British through all this ‘political’ positioning can now take their fight to the next level with a clear concience.