Will peace elude Afghanistan again?
The reading from the Letter to the Galatians this Sunday describes how faith ends all divisions, uniting one and all as children of God. The announcement Monday that the U.S. and Afghan governments would begin direct talks on national unity with representatives of the Taliban insurgency gave the world at least . . .
The reading from the Letter to the Galatians this Sunday describes how faith ends all divisions, uniting one and all as children of God. The announcement Monday that the U.S. and Afghan governments would begin direct talks on national unity with representatives of the Taliban insurgency gave the world at least a brief glimmer of hope the 11-year-old Afghan war might be coming to an end. But within hours the Afghan government had suspended the talks and insurgents had carried out an ambush on an American convoy near the Bagram Air Base north of the Afghan capital, killing four American soldiers.
Afghans of nearly every political stripe expressed outrage and concern at widely broadcast news images of insurgent envoys raising the white Taliban flag from their days in power and speaking as if they had set up an embassy for a government in exile—including posting a sign that described the office as the political arm of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the formal name of the old Taliban government. Qatari-based news organizations, including Al Jazeera, later broadcast several interviews with the envoys making their case for international attention.
The Afghan government, furious that assurances from the Americans the Taliban would not use the Doha office for political or fund-raising purposes had been flouted, suspended bilateral security talks with the U.S. earlier Wednesday and said they would not send their peace emissaries to Qatar to talk to the Taliban until there was a change.
American officials, worried that painstaking efforts to restart the peace process after 18 months of deadlock were crumbling right at a breakthrough moment, moved quickly to try to resolve the Afghan government’s objections to what increasingly appeared to be a publicity coup by the Taliban.
At the same time President Barack Obama on Wednesday rejected criticism from Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office that the U.S. had said one thing and done another while arranging informal peace talks with the insurgent Taliban movement. “We had anticipated that at the outset, there were going to be some areas of friction, to put it mildly, in getting this thing off the ground,” Obama said.
Homily hint: If we are indeed all children of one God, why can’t we stop fighting with each other and learn to get along? Perhaps because we haven’t learned to listen to our divine Parent, preferring to remain immature and rebellious and think we know better. Encourage those who are gathered to pray that we all grow up to recognize and heed the reconciling call of the Parent we are blessed to share.
Afghans of nearly every political stripe expressed outrage and concern at widely broadcast news images of insurgent envoys raising the white Taliban flag from their days in power and speaking as if they had set up an embassy for a government in exile—including posting a sign that described the office as the political arm of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the formal name of the old Taliban government. Qatari-based news organizations, including Al Jazeera, later broadcast several interviews with the envoys making their case for international attention.
The Afghan government, furious that assurances from the Americans the Taliban would not use the Doha office for political or fund-raising purposes had been flouted, suspended bilateral security talks with the U.S. earlier Wednesday and said they would not send their peace emissaries to Qatar to talk to the Taliban until there was a change.
American officials, worried that painstaking efforts to restart the peace process after 18 months of deadlock were crumbling right at a breakthrough moment, moved quickly to try to resolve the Afghan government’s objections to what increasingly appeared to be a publicity coup by the Taliban.
At the same time President Barack Obama on Wednesday rejected criticism from Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office that the U.S. had said one thing and done another while arranging informal peace talks with the insurgent Taliban movement. “We had anticipated that at the outset, there were going to be some areas of friction, to put it mildly, in getting this thing off the ground,” Obama said.
Homily hint: If we are indeed all children of one God, why can’t we stop fighting with each other and learn to get along? Perhaps because we haven’t learned to listen to our divine Parent, preferring to remain immature and rebellious and think we know better. Encourage those who are gathered to pray that we all grow up to recognize and heed the reconciling call of the Parent we are blessed to share.
Sources: Articles by Alissa J. Rubin and Rod Nordland for the New York Times
and Kathleen Hennessey and Hashmat Baktash for the Los Angeles Times