Karzai threatens Taliban negotiations

That's the ultimate angle behind his statement that the "international community" needs to set a timetable for withdrawing from Afghanistan.

Karzai, taking a page from Obama's book, thinks he needs to talk to all players in Afghanistan, no more preconditions. And, we and NATO can either go along, or be left in the dust, no matter how many more troops Obama sends there.

Because, if $25 million didn't magically produce bin Laden's head on a pike, neither will 25,000 troops.

My personal belief is that partition is at least as good for Afghanistan as for Iraq. Let Pakistan have the Taliban areas to add to its North West Frontier. Of course, the Inter-Services Intelligence might find the Afghani Taliban plus the NWF to be strong enough to secede.

Let Karzai (until the former Northern Alliance topples him) have the center and north, except for northern areas that might join the "stan" to the north.