Guess who's coming to dinner in Afghanistan as an honored guest of the 1600 Crew? A Nobel Laureate? A Well-Respected International figure known for bringing peace? Nope, you are all wrong...it's the Taliban! The same fine folks who helped bring us Osama bin Laden and the 9-11 hijackers are being assiduously courted by the 1600 Crew as a viable, stabilizing force for Afghanistan. Recently someone remarked that we as Americans have the foreign policy memory of a goldfish, and that's about right. It seems that the Beltway Losers Support Group (meetings weekly at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave) are asking the Talibs to "come on home" under the four following conditions:

• Mullah Omar must be removed as supreme leader of the Taliban.
  
• All Pakistani, Arab and other foreign fighters currently engaged in operations against international troops in Afghanistan must be thrown out of the country.
  
• Any US or allied soldiers held captive must be released.
  
• Afghans currently living abroad, notably in the United States and England, must be given a part in the government - through being allowed to contest elections - even though many do not even speak their mother tongue, such as Dari or Pashtu.

Apparently, the Taliban refused the first condition point blank, but showed some flexibility on the other terms. As such, this first preliminary contact made little headway. It is not known whether there will be further meetings, but given the fact that the reason for staging the talks in the first place remains unchanged, more contact can be expected.

Great. Is this an oblique admission of failure by the 1600 Crew that their policies for "nation-building" on a tax-cut shoestring are as disastrous as everyone has told them they would be? Turning enemies into allies is a policy as old as warfare itself, but it's usually a long-term goal, not a measure borne of expediency in a situation as volatile as Afghanistan.

Any alliance with the Taliban will be like sleeping on a nest of funnel-web spiders...survival is hardly guaranteed, indeed we might be bitten and paralyzed before we know what's happened.