I think it likely that the US negotiations with the Taliban would consist of the following:

"Our position, in summary, is:

- when we (the US) withdraw 10,000 troops this year and 20,000 odd in mid 2012 we ask the Taliban to minimize US casualties and minimize offensive activity.

- we ask you (the Taliban) to facilitate a sense of security knowing that it be only temporary.

- in recognition that Karzai has always been a Western puppet with little power outside the Kabul city limits.

- in return for temporary lull in Taliban activity We (the US) will withdraw more quickly leaving puppet forces in Afghanistan to their fate

- and meanwhile we (the US) will use our media propaganda skills to obscure a well-earned American defeat with "Peace with Honour in Afghanistan"".

- we ask that the Taliban to not even mention that the US partial withdrawal timings (the 30,000 by August 2012) are very much coordinated into Obama's November 2012 Predidential Re-election strategy.

Once the US/NATO allies/Australian ally have largely left, by 2014, then you (the Taliban) can do what you like with the Karzai/Kabul puppet forces."

Next stop Iran.

One has to ask why Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has not been across this? It is not because he has been preoccupied with the Indonesian live cattle importation fiasco.

I really do not understand where Bruce is coming from. He reasoning seems to be that war is bad, therefore the war in Afghanistan is bad, therefore the USA should not wage war in Afghanistan.

You probably don't know this, Bruce, but on 11/9/2001, the USA suffered from the most spectacular and sucessful terrorist attack in history. That attack originated from Afghanistan, almost certainly with the open connivance from the Taliban governement. That means war, Bruce.

The reason why the USA has such fantastic and expensive armed forces is to defend itself, and the Taliban government gave the yanks plenty of excuse to turn their armed forces loose. Australia is an ally of the USA, with mutual obligations under our ANZUS treaty to aid each other if one of us is attacked. An agreement is an agreement, Bruce. You can't expect one side of an agremeent to hold up their end of the bargain, if you won't hold up your end.

From what I see, the war in Afghanistan is beneficial to all the western combattants now engaged in hostilities. The US, Australia and NATO all have to pay their soldiers and train them regardles of whether a war exists or not. Having a "nice" little war in which casualties are trifling and where the bad guys are getting exterminated all over the place looks like a great idea to me.

Being a Taliban is not conducive to good health and longevity.

The only thing wrong with Afghanistan, Bruce, is that this war once again shows the lack of resolve of the USA's allies, with the USA and Britain doing the heavy lifting, whilw the rest of the USA's allies cause doing as little as possible. No wonder the yanks are laughing at the miserable efforts of NATO in trying to get rid of Ghaddafi and are refusing to help their unreliable allies.

The entire war in Afghanistan could have been avoided, Bruce, if western governments had realised that Muslim people are too dangerous to allow them to immigrate, or even enter your free countries temporarily without good reason.

I would hardly think so Raycom, Chairman Rudd would be negotiating the transfer of The Taleban to become new Australians; I think it is the mutated version of Imperialism; Bring the subjects here, and make them like everyone else here ; Servile to the State.

I take your assumption Plantagenet as a tong in cheek commentary; as always with any great Ideological Political strategy (Metaphor for Imperial interventionism and Militarism);

It would not be the US Government who will or has warn the humiliation,; Collectivisms Totalitarian Criminal conspiracies; They were prompted by the practical consequences to which, as people believed, determinism inevitably leads: fatalist quietism and absolution from moral responsibility;

No, the losers’ are always Society and the collective Individuals who build Civilized sosieties to be the Miluge of The Cultural and Spiritual Legacy of Fiat Inflatio