What Does This Tell You?

It's making headlines in newspapers in every corner of the world - Hamid Karzai is trying to cut some deal with the Taliban.

Yes, this is the same Taliban that Canadian and other NATO soldiers are in Afghanistan to defeat. Let's see - they're killing us and a bunch of other folks and we're killing them and a bunch of other folks while Hamid is trying to get a game of "let's make a deal" going.

Now, what does that tell ya?

It says a lot of things, almost none of them new.

It says that we're not going to defeat the Taliban with guns and bombs and rockets. Nope, no way in hell.

It says that Karzai knows his already thoroughly compromised and corruption-riddled government needs a deal with the Taliban just to survive.

It says that Hamid realizes that NATO's effort isn't working, that it's far too small to win this one for him.

It says that the Afghan president sees the hearts and minds of his people slipping straight through his fingers.

Meanwhile it's also reported that the Taliban has rebuffed Karzai. That says they don't see the need to make any deals.

It's also reported that the Taliban aren't going back to their mountain retreats this winter as expected. No, apparently they intend to stay and run a campaign aimed at taking Kabul.

It says that NATO is out of time and must either deploy a far larger force or start preparing to get out.