Churchill Proved Right

White House spokesman at a regular briefing stated that Taliban is not a terrorist organization, but an armed insurgency. US also been trying to have some sort of talk with Taliban. It may be mentioned here that a couple of years after the fall of Taliban in Afghanistan, Pakistan implored US to differentiate between Taliban and Al-Qaeda as according to them Taliban leadership comprised ethnic Pashtun Afghans who grew up in refugee camps or religious boarding schools in Pakistan. Taliban were local people with local agenda and they were here to stay. On the other hand, Al-Qaeda had a global agenda which went beyond any particular country and was aimed at a kind of globalized Islamic jihad against the United States as a superpower and US was advised to open negotiations with Taliban for finding a lasting solution. But, the advice was looked upon with disdain and it was even propagated that Pakistan was playing a double game. Winston Churchill was prophetic when he said 'You can always count on Americans to do the right thing - after they've tried everything else'.