OTTAWA - The Conservative government shares the Obama administration's view that talks are possible with moderate elements of the Taliban in Afghanistan, senior Tory ministers and officials said Monday.
Over the weekend, U.S. President Barack Obama told the New York Times that the American military could reach out to members of the Taliban and try to bring them into the Afghan government.
He pointed to success the U.S. has had in Iraq in building bridges with disenfranchised Sunnis, but acknowledged the situation was more complex in Iraq.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper mused about the same possibility late last week.
"President (Hamid) Karzai himself, as you know, has said that part of the long-term strategy for Afghanistan is not just ... an aggressive response to the security, to those who are trying to destroy the constitutional and democratic order through violence," he said in Halifax.
"But also attempting to reach out and attempting to find political reconciliation, particularly locally where that's possible. One does not preclude the other."
Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Monday any talks with insurgents would be undertaken by the Afghan government, and only with those who have renounced violence.
"President Obama has stated quite clearly what we all believe," MacKay said.
"We want people to walk away from the diabolical ways of the Taliban and embrace stability, embrace human rights and embrace the exercise that this NATO-led, UN-backed, Afghan-accepted mission is all about, and that's returning power to the people of that country."
The Conservative position on such talks has changed over the last three years. When they first came to power and inherited the Afghan mission, the Tories shot down any suggestion of negotiating with the Taliban -- talking with terrorists as they put it.
"Is it next going to be tea with Osama Bin Laden? This cannot happen," MacKay told the CBC in September 2006.
NDP Leader Jack Layton earned the nickname "Taliban Jack" by Tories and other critics for promoting the idea of a negotiated ceasefire involving the Afghan government, Pakistani combatants and the Taliban.
Harper said in October 2006 that NDP House Leader Libby Davies was asking "despicable questions" in the House of Commons for raising that possibility.
And as recently as during last spring's Commons debate on the length of the Afghan mission, Tory MPs were still suggesting it was foolishness to talk to the Taliban.
But reports emerged around the same time that Canadian troops were already engaging in discussions with local leaders connected with the Taliban on the ground in Afghanistan.
The rhetoric has gradually cooled around such activities, and the Conservatives have supported the Karzai government's efforts to slowly build bridges.
A spokesman for Harper said Monday that it was a "fact" the Taliban was not a monolithic entity, and that the insurgency was more "nuanced."
Peter Jones, associate professor at the University of Ottawa's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, said negotiations with "the other side" is always part of the final phases of a conflict and happened in places such as Northern Ireland and South Africa.
He said there are lots of people around the hard core of the Taliban, such as local governors and warlords, with whom a dialogue could be struck.
"One of the objectives of any conversation is to try and find who it is on the other side you have to talk to, and map out the constellation of actors on the other side," Jones said.
Layton welcomed the discussion on talks with some Taliban elements, and said the government should draw on the experience of Canadians with firsthand experience in brokering ceasefires and peace deals.
"Let's not be dragged kicking and screaming into being a voice of peace," Layton said.
"Let's be proactive promoters of a peace process, bringing forward that Canadian expertise, which is second to none in the world, in bringing sides together in complex difficult conflicts."
Meanwhile, MacKay said Monday that NATO should consider all candidates regardless of their nationality for a job he's rumoured to be in the running for: secretary general of the military alliance.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is in charge of military operations in Afghanistan, should eschew its long-standing tradition of selecting a European secretary general, MacKay said Monday.
The Washington Post reported over the weekend that U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden would lobby NATO to choose MacKay in exchange for giving France control of two commands currently held by Americans.
The military alliance is looking for a replacement for Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, but no European consensus candidate has so far emerged.
