But what's truly embarrassing and maddening about Karzai's unilateral initiative is that it is, er, absolutely pointless. As the Times
reports: "The clandestine contacts with the Taliban have borne little
fruit, according to people who have been told about them. But they have
helped undermine the remaining confidence between the United States and
Mr. Karzai, making the already messy endgame of the Afghan conflict even
more volatile." Even worse:
The peace contacts,Karzai's move was not just nefarious; it was dumb.
though, have yielded no tangible agreement, nor even progressed as far
as opening negotiations for one. And it is not clear whether the Taliban
ever intended to seriously pursue negotiations, or were simply trying
to derail the security agreement by distracting Mr. Karzai and leading
him on, as many of the officials said they suspected.