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    US to pay Taliban members to switch sides
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    The buyout idea, according to Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is to separate local Taliban from their leaders, replicating a programme used to neutralise the insurgency against Americans in Iraq. "Afghan leaders and our military say that local Taliban fighters are motivated largely by the need for a job or loyalty to the local leader who pays them and not by ideology or religious zeal" Levin said in a Senate floor speech Sep 11. Full Article at Times of India
    Afghan leaders and our military say that local Taliban fighters are motivated largely by the need for a job or loyalty to the local leader who pays them and not by ideology or religious zeal
    Carl Levin – Carl Levin SOURCE: Times of India 3 weeks ago
All quotes from:
US to pay Taliban members to switch sides
  1. So long as the Americans are keenly aware of this, you're buying a very, very, very temporary allegiance ... If that's the foundation for moving forward, it's a shaky foundation.
    SOURCE: Times of India 3 weeks ago
  2. They believe an effort to attract these fighters to the government's side could succeed, if they are offered security for themselves and their families, and if there is no penalty for previous activity against us.
    SOURCE: Times of India 3 weeks ago
  3. There's been an amnesty programme for low-level Taliban in place for many years now and thousands of people have taken advantage of it
    SOURCE: Times of India 3 weeks ago
  4. You can rent an Afghan, but you can't buy him
    SOURCE: Times of India 3 weeks ago
  5. Most of the fighters we see in Afghanistan are Afghans, some with (a) foreign cadre with them
    SOURCE: Times of India 3 weeks ago
  6. Most are operating for pay; some are under a commanders charismatic leadership; some are frustrated with local leaders.
    SOURCE: Times of India 3 weeks ago

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