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Time to talk with the Taliban?

Whatever one might say, in the end so-called "enemies" have to sit down and talk.

Mustafa Qadri is newmatilda.com's Middle East and South Asia Correspondent. He has reported widely from Israel and Palestine, London and Pakistan. He used to be a lawyer specialising in public international law and has worked at the Australian Attorney-General’s Department representing the Government in native title claims and international crime treaty negotiations.

Qadri writes on what seems to be a change of heart in the Bush White House to sit down and talk with the Taliban.

"You are with us, or you are with the terrorists," declaimed President George Bush in his now infamous speech to Congress following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

Now, the US is thinking of talking to the terrorists.

On Tuesday the Wall Street Journal reported on a "policy review" in which the Bush Administration is considering opening talks with elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan. In neighbouring Pakistan, the US has endorsed a Pakistan Government initiative to arm tribal militias, or lashkars, to hunt or recruit pro-Taliban militants in that country.

"Ultimately," says US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, "there has to be... reconciliation [with the Taliban] as part of a political outcome to this."

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