Surrender in Afghanistan
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The war in Afghanistan may end this year in thinly disguised surrender.
"The Taliban per se is not our enemy," Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview with Newsweek magazine Dec. 15.
We went to war in Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime because it had sheltered al-Qaida. Perhaps Mr. Biden forgot.
A story in an Indian newspaper Dec. 29 suggests the reason for the vice president's memory lapse. The Obama administration apparently is conducting secret negotiations with the Taliban and has recruited Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Muslim Brotherhood's leading jurist, to mediate them.
"Earlier this month, Mr. al-Qaradawi helped draw a road map for a deal between the Taliban and the United States aimed at giving the superpower a face-saving political settlement ahead of its planned withdrawal from Afghanistan, which is due to begin in 2014," wrote reporter Praveen Swami, citing "Indian diplomatic sources."
Picking Mr. al-Qaradawi, 84, to broker a peace deal is like choosing Benito Mussolini to mediate secret peace talks with the Nazis.
Mr. al-Qaradawi seeks the establishment of a worldwide caliphate ruled by Islamic law. And like other radical Islamists, Mr. al-Qaradawi advocates the destruction of Israel. But not even that is enough to satisfy his blood lust.
"Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption," Mr. al-Qaradawi said in a speech broadcast on al-Jazeera in 2009. "The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them ... he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hands of the believers. ... Oh Allah, count their numbers and kill them, down to the very last one."
In 2003, Mr. al-Qaradawi issued a fatwa justifying the killing of U.S. troops in Iraq. When the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca opposed the killing of civilians, Mr. al-Qaradawi criticized him. Yet the Obama administration apparently considers Mr. al-Qaradawi to be a "moderate."
Perhaps he is, compared to Mohammed Fazl, a senior Taliban official who's been held at Guantanamo Bay since early 2002. Mr. Fazl is alleged to have overseen the murder of thousands of Afghanistan's minority Shiite Muslims.
First Published January 8, 2012 12:00 am
