U.S. Military To Offer Jobs To Taliban

The U.S. military launched a new program to persuade low-ranking insurgents with the Taliban to drop their violent ways.

 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. military launched a new program to persuade low-ranking insurgents with the Taliban to drop their violent ways.

With the help of the Afghan government, the plan is to give jobs to the Taliban.

The program is modeled after “Sons of Iraq” program that persuaded Sunni Muslims to withdraw weapons.

U.S. officers have been encouraged to implement the jobs program in Southern Afghanistan, the heart of the Taliban insurgency.

The program is being supported by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the head of U.S. and Western forces in Afghanistan.

The target of the program is specifically those fighters with personal problems with their foreign occupiers rather than an ideological agenda like those espoused by the Taliban.

The drive comes a month after President Hamid Karzai took back control of the Afghan government through what most consider a sham election.

Said Karzai, “We invite all disenchanted brothers who are not directly linked to international terrorism to again embrace their homeland.”

However, any plan has its weaknesses, an unnamed diplomat told the Los Angeles Times.

“Lots of Taliban surrender,” he said when asked about Afghan reconciliation commission ‘s claims of gaining the confidence of over 8,000 fighters. “And lots of them then un-surrender.”