Taliban Moves in as NATO Leaves; Risks of Talking with the Taliban
BLITZER: One of the biggest fears is that as U.S. and NATO forces leave Afghanistan the Taliban will fill the void. In fact, it's already happening to a certain degree. CNN's Nick Payton Walsh has this exclusive report.</s>NICK PAYTON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When President Obama talks of handing Afghanistan back to the Afghans, the city of Lashkaga (ph), a bustling enclave in violent Helmand Province, is the model that NATO points to. This is what peace here looks like, hundreds of NATO troops have died fighting for Helmand, but Afghans are in charge of security from July for better or worse. Fewer NATO troops, some hope, means less violence from insurgents. "People don't like foreigners here," he says, adding that without them he hopes security will be better. NATO promotes Afghan solutions to Afghan problems. But here, the Afghan solution, the police, are to some, the problem. One man told us anonymously how this month he was badly beaten for speeding.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I was driving fast on a motor bike to move my sick friend to the doctor. Police stopped me for speeding and when I talked back they beat me, kicked me, and punched me for a few minutes. As civilians here, we are afraid of both the police and the Taliban and I can't say which one I fear more.</s>WALSH: It's this rough arm of the law, its corruption and abuse that is often used to explain how the Taliban's swift, blunt justice became popular. In this city the handover doesn't mean they've fled. In fact, the Taliban is still very much part of life here. (on camera): While the handover means the Afghan police taking responsibility for security, many people here off camera tell us the Taliban retain a strong presence.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Many people buy from me. I don't know who is Taliban.</s>WALSH (voice-over): But others like this pharmacist, part of a local Sikh minority, admit their customers too.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Yes, definitely the Taliban are coming here for their shopping. They buy headache pills from me.</s>WALSH: The luxury of meat selling fast as aid money pours into the town. Easy cash that means all sides want to keep this city an enclave from the war swirling around them. But this compromise, the allegedly sluggish police, the Taliban waiting in the wings, is far from NATO's original game plan. Is this the life America really wanted to hand back to the Afghans? We asked a senior American here. (on camera): You're happy to give Afghans that kind of justice?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that is a bit of a --</s>WALSH: Inside you must know, do you feel happy about where the police are?</s>ANDREW ERICKSON, USAID REPRESENTATIVE: What I want to say here is I want to say that I feel that that's imposing our values upon the Afghans. What matters to the Afghans is do they have an adequate security force to meet their own needs? And the Afghans made the decision that they wanted to transition this city. Now I think it would be presumptuous of me as a foreigner right now to judge the security forces that they have in place. These guys are pretty effective at the level they need to be effective in this environment today.</s>WALSH: Today money has bought a pause in this city's violence, a brief chance for hope after 30 years of war, but yesterday's fears are still nearby leaving tomorrow so uncertain. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's dig deeper now with our National Security contributor, our analyst, Peter Bergen. Peter, the president and the secretary of state both made it clear this past week they would like to negotiate some sort of peace settlement with the Taliban. Let me play this clip of what the president said in his address to the nation.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Our position on these talks is clear. They must be led by the Afghan government and those who want to be a part of a peaceful Afghanistan must break from al Qaeda, abandon violence, and abide by the Afghan constitution. But in part because of our military effort we have reason to believe that progress can be made.</s>BLITZER: I hope he's right. I know you hope he's right that progress could be made, but is it realistic to think that the Taliban leadership will accept the Afghan constitution? I wrote about this on my blog this week, Article 22 gives equal rights to women.</s>PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: They wouldn't be the Taliban if they accepted that. And, you know, the Taliban kind of almost one of the main, as you know, points of their rule is the exclusion of women from the work place and girls from schools. They haven't said anything about what their plans are on this front. If we're going to do some peace deal with the United States and the Afghan government, what is their position on these issues? They've never really explained it.</s>BLITZER: Because it sounds a little naive to me, but you know a lot more about this than I do. To think you can convert the Taliban and get them to accept these three conditions that the president laid out based on their at least previous history.</s>BERGEN: I think naive is a good word. Certainly wishful thinking might also be another word you could use. You know, some Taliban have come over. There have been some quote-unquote "moderate Taliban" who have laid down their arms or even members of the Taliban and their parliament. So it is not impossible but I think the moderate ones have had plenty of time to moderate and the ones still out there, the Omar led Taliban, you know, their views don't seem to have changed.</s>BLITZER: In Iraq, they bought off some of the al Qaeda guys with cash. They gave them a lot of money and said here is the money. You're no longer al Qaeda. Will that work with the Taliban?</s>BERGEN: There is a reintegration program for Taliban fighters. Part of it is cash driven.</s>BLITZER: U.S. taxpayers basically giving them money to stop being the Taliban.</s>BERGEN: Right.</s>BLITZER: Is it working?</s>BERGEN: The numbers are I think 2,000 if you're going to be generous.</s>BLITZER: Two thousand dollars?</s>BERGEN: Two thousand Taliban fighters who are in the process of maybe taking part of this in an insurgency that probably consists of 35,000 so it is not to be sniffed at, but it's not like there is a huge shift of people willing to leave the Taliban because of cash payments.</s>BLITZER: Is it fair to say that this week the president of the United States sided with Vice President Joe Biden in terms of the troop withdrawal pace and rejected the advice of General Petraeus, Admiral Mullen, and the other military commanders?</s>BERGEN: That's what they seem to have testified to. However, I think that it's maybe a little bit too reductive to say Biden versus Petraeus. The politics around this have changed completely. The death of Bin Laden, the budget crisis -- it just became, you know, and the president has to make political decisions not just military decisions. And, you know, both Petraeus and Admiral Mullen acknowledge that fact. It's not just a military decision.</s>BLITZER: It is not as you point out not just a military or economic or political decision. It's an economic decision as well because keeping in 2013, 2014, 70,000 or so U.S. troops, that's still tens and tens, maybe hundreds of billions of dollars.</s>BERGEN: Sure. I mean, for every a thousand American soldiers over there. It's a million dollars for the deployment so like a billion dollars for each increment of 1,000 --</s>BLITZER: You know the mood on Capitol Hill right now is moving quickly saying, you know what? If it's going to be another 300 billion, 400 billion, 500 billion between now and the end of 2014, that's money better spent for nation building as the president said here in the United States.</s>BERGEN: Sure. I think that was true even before the death of Bin Laden. You know, that is another sort of evidence point that people can point to and say, well, we need to move back here.</s>BLITZER: The president says he'd like U.S. troops out of Afghanistan completely by the end of 2014. That's three and a half years from now. There was a story in "The Wall Street Journal" this week saying military commanders would like to keep 25,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014.</s>BERGEN: Well, the United States and the Afghan government are in the middle of negotiating some kind of agreement. Might even be a status of forces agreement, long-term partnership. It would involve U.S. forces in training and advising, you know, kind of intelligence support, counterterrorism missions into 2015 and beyond. Is that number going to be 25,000? I don't know, but it wouldn't be nothing.</s>BLITZER: It wouldn't be a huge surprise. We'll see what the appetite and mood of the American public is around that time if they last even that long. Thanks very much, Peter. Thanks for coming in. CNN gets into Damascus, Syria now for the first time since the brutal crackdown began. Just ahead a sign in the country the Syrian government wants you to see. Plus a bold new plan to surrender a major battle in the war on drugs. Should the federal government stop enforcing marijuana laws?