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> “Taliban 'ready to discuss' Bin Laden handover if bombing halts. The Taliban would be ready to discuss handing over Osama bin Laden to a neutral country if th

> “Taliban 'ready to discuss' Bin Laden handover if bombing halts. The Taliban would be ready to discuss handing over Osama bin Laden to a neutral country if the US halted the bombing of Afghanistan, a senior Taliban official said today.” Oct 14, 2001 [0] > “Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that the United States would not accept a negotiated surrender between Afghanistan's new interim government and besieged Taliban forces in Kandahar that granted amnesty to Taliban leader Mohammad Omar” December 7, 2001 [1] The Taliban did seriously offer surrender. The US just never entertained it unless it was basically complete unconditional surrender. We can’t know if the Taliban would have followed through, but it was the US refusal to seriously negotiate, not the Taliban. Karzai and the interim government were set up at that point, so that is who would have been in charge, likely with local leaders, including former Taliban, working loosely with the national government. It would have been a more militant islamist government, but it would have been Afghan focused and relatively neutral to the US. I agree on the Tora Bora capture. Operation Anaconda was a tactical failure but the goal was to capture UBL. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.terrorism5 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/oct/14/afghanistan.te... [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/12/07/rumsfeld-says-no-amnesty-for-taliban-leader/23608ba8-cf7c-4894-90ca-2120c2456be4/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2001/12/07/r...

koheripbal 5y ago
No. They agreed to hand over OBL to a different country for trial IF they were given evidence against him. ...and then OBL confessed publicly on video, and the Taliban fell silent. Also remember that OBL was paying the Taliban $20 million per year to protect him. Neither of your sources says that the Taliban offered to surrender themselves.
- 542354234235 5y ago
  >Neither of your sources says that the Taliban offered to surrender themselves. "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that the United States would not accept a negotiated surrender between Afghanistan's new interim government and besieged Taliban forces in Kandahar that granted amnesty to Taliban leader Mohammad Omar." >We can’t know if the Taliban would have followed through, but it was the US refusal to seriously negotiate, not the Taliban. Literally what I said.
  - lucas_membrane 5y ago
    The Taliban said that they would agree to have OBL tried under Islamic law. That sounded to me like an opening position at the start of negotiations. That sounded to Dick Cheney like an excuse to not negotiate and go to war. Going to war sounded to Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld like an excuse to build up American capabilities in the region so that America could have another war to convert Iraq into a shining light of democracy pumping out oil under a constitution written by the USA.

koheripbal 5y ago

No. They agreed to hand over OBL to a different country for trial IF they were given evidence against him. ...and then OBL confessed publicly on video, and the Taliban fell silent. Also remember that OBL was paying the Taliban $20 million per year to protect him. Neither of your sources says that the Taliban offered to surrender themselves.

542354234235 5y ago
>Neither of your sources says that the Taliban offered to surrender themselves. "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that the United States would not accept a negotiated surrender between Afghanistan's new interim government and besieged Taliban forces in Kandahar that granted amnesty to Taliban leader Mohammad Omar." >We can’t know if the Taliban would have followed through, but it was the US refusal to seriously negotiate, not the Taliban. Literally what I said.
- lucas_membrane 5y ago
  The Taliban said that they would agree to have OBL tried under Islamic law. That sounded to me like an opening position at the start of negotiations. That sounded to Dick Cheney like an excuse to not negotiate and go to war. Going to war sounded to Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld like an excuse to build up American capabilities in the region so that America could have another war to convert Iraq into a shining light of democracy pumping out oil under a constitution written by the USA.