Taliban not the enemy in Afghanistan: Polish aide

WARSAW (Reuters/AFP) - The United States has too often left allies to suffer the consequences of flawed policies in Afghanistan and must now negotiate peace with the resurgent Taliban, Polands Defence Ministry Advisor said on Monday. We must limit military actions and fight against our real enemies exclusively. The Taliban are not our enemies, Roman Kuzniar, foreign policy professor and military advisor to Defence Minister Bogdan Klich, told Reuters in an interview. They have not attacked us. Its the terrorists. We must talk to the Taliban and to all of them - not only the moderate ones. Kuzniar, whose country has 2,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is now reviewing its mission there, said the army were calling for more troops, more troops to win the war. But it doesnt work that way, he said. The mission has been left to the army and we have lost political control over it. We cannot seek the victory there by more and more bloodshed. Kuzniar said. Gen Stanley McChrystals conclusions are what they are, but nobody knows what will Obama do about it. This is a time for diplomacy and politics, also for Poland, Kuzniar said. We must demand that all the allies views are taken into account while discussing Afghanistan, not only the US one. Too many times the US has spilt milk and we had to clean it up. Instead, Kuzniar said, Nato should seek to engage all powers in Afghanistan, as well as its neighbours, in dialogue about the countrys future. The surveys are justified, the people see the mission is not going the right way. We have great losses on all sides - civilians, us, our enemies. We must take it back from army and regain political control over it. We need more brains there. Meanwhile, Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen reminded the US of allies involvement in Afghanistan and the heavy price some of them are paying there, in a speech which was to be given on Monday. I know that there are many here in Washington who are frustrated, Rasmussen was quoted as saying in the speech to be delivered at the Atlantic Council in Washington, a copy of which was obtained by AFP in Brussels. The former Danish prime minister pointed out that there are 35,000 non-US troops in Afghanistan, or about 40 of the total. He said despite conventional wisdom, allies were not running from the fight. I will not accept from anyone the argument that the Europeans and the Canadians are not paying the price for success in Afghanistan. They are. If they dont feel as if their efforts and sacrifices in Nato are recognised and valued, they will be less inclined to make those efforts and those sacrifices. That is not in anyones interest. If we are to succeed in Afghanistan, it will only be if we do it together. Public support for this mission in troop-contributing countries is falling - because of rising casualties; because of concerns about the way the elections was held; but most of all, because of a sense among many people that, despite all the progress, we arent getting anywhere. Nato will stay for as long as it takes to succeed. And I want to repeat that: as long as it takes. But that cannot mean forever. Meanwhile, Britains top general in Afghanistan has backed his US commander General Stanley McChrystals call for more foreign troops to fight an increasingly bloody Taliban insurgency, a newspaper said Monday. Lt-Gen Jim Dutton, the deputy commander of Natos International Security Assistance Force, told The Times newspaper that victory was a matter of straightforward force ratios. If you want to achieve long-term stability, and therefore a lack of terrorism potential in an area, you need to be doing more than simply patrolling the skies, Dutton said.

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