bobbyw24
10-14-2009, 05:03 AM
Afghan insurgents should be offered amnesties and removal from the coalition’s “wanted" list if they lay down their arms, says the British general charged with coaxing fighters away from their extremist leaders.
“There’s no question about it: amnesty would be part of this initiative,” Lieutenant-General Sir Graeme Lamb told The Times. The insurgents might have blood on their hands, but “who doesn’t?” he asked. “We’ve killed people that they would say ‘these were entirely innocent people’.”
The Afghan Government and the coalition should also consider releasing prisoners and detainees who renounced violence, the former special forces commander said in an interview at Nato’s Kabul headquarters.
Drawing on lessons he learnt in Northern Ireland, General Lamb argued that neither side could win the present conflict through force alone: “The idea that we just continue to fight to a bloody end — from my experience of 38 years of soldiering — would be nonsensical,” he said. “We can’t fight our way to success.”
Continued below
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6873537.ece
“There’s no question about it: amnesty would be part of this initiative,” Lieutenant-General Sir Graeme Lamb told The Times. The insurgents might have blood on their hands, but “who doesn’t?” he asked. “We’ve killed people that they would say ‘these were entirely innocent people’.”
The Afghan Government and the coalition should also consider releasing prisoners and detainees who renounced violence, the former special forces commander said in an interview at Nato’s Kabul headquarters.
Drawing on lessons he learnt in Northern Ireland, General Lamb argued that neither side could win the present conflict through force alone: “The idea that we just continue to fight to a bloody end — from my experience of 38 years of soldiering — would be nonsensical,” he said. “We can’t fight our way to success.”
Continued below
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/Afghanistan/article6873537.ece