afghanistan. a war aimed at toppling the taliban regime and posing a future threat. which. has not done. at the moment, troops are fighting and dying to keep the taliban at bay with no end in sight. only goals for future drawdowns of the troops. look at this map. afghanistan, you may know as a country, but it is a patchwork of areas controlled at least on paper by troops from various countries. now we get word from kabul of a high peace council. their words. assembled by the afghan government apparently with the blessing of the united states. village elders, former warlords, 70age ganns in all including ten women called to begin and i quote serious substantive dialogue with the armed opposition. the armed opposition is the taliban. no less the senior u.s. commander in afghanistan, general david petraeus on the
the united states. village elders, former war lords, 70 afghans in all, ten of them are women called to begin serious substantive dialogue with the armed opposition. that, by the way, is the taliban. no less than the senior u.s. commander in afghanistan, general david petraeus, is on the record saying high level contacts are already well under way but afghan leaders insist the process is at best in its infancy. what does this mean, negotiating with the enemy? negotiating quite possibly with the worst enemy you ve ever had? ivan watson is following these developments and more in the afghan capital. ivan, this is a substantially more complicated thing than it would appear from the outside. from the outside it appears that this is sleeping with the enemy. tell us more about this council and the state of the negotiations. reporter: that s right. well, as you mentioned, general david petraeus, the u.s. military commander here, ali, saying that the way you end insurgencies and this is in
the basic feeling was that, look, we re here to make up for some lost ground, to get in nge the afghan people. we saw evidence of that when i was there, i saw them getting out there, trying to reach out to village elders. because it s really a war of trying to win over the hearts of the afghan people. if u.s. fors can get in there, right? and win over the hearts of afghan people by providing water by providing a well where a well is needed. perhaps, then, those people won t turn to the taliban to do that. that is going to be one way to win this particur war. if you can t do that. if you can t get in there and win the hearts of the afghan people, you re not going to succeed. and do they get that sense that they are winnintsg those hearts and minds? do they have that feeling? well, it s the beginning for them. the ones i cam in with in some ways, it is the beginning, it is a long haul. we went to something a meeting of village elders, where these elders from all over get to c
like the unofficial leader of the village. they were able to hear what their concerns are, what their needs are. the problem is, in order to get through some of these remote places you have to pass through paved and in some says unpaved roads. and you re never is sure if an ied is there. that s how the taliban is fighting forces. and the main way they do that is through the use of ides. and it the importance of being able to earn the trust of the tribal leaders oftentimes, our military relies on them for intelligence to let them know when an ied is implanted in a certain area? reporter: without question. you hit the nail right on the head. that is absolutely right, some of these village elders can provide not only information about security. but the main point in doing that is, if you can get the village eld are to come to u.s. forces for whatever their needs may be, perhaps then they won t turn to the taliban for their needs.
kids see vehicles coming in and see the guns. they are a little nervous at first. scared. they don t know how to take you. and then once you start taking off the gloves, take off the sunglasses, let them see your eyes. you want to be able to break the ice with them, the population. let them know, you know, we want to help. okay. that s what it is really all about. taking off the gloves and taking off the glasses. interacting as much as you can. at one point during this particular patrol, one of the lie tenants from the unit was able to go and speak to the village elder who was there. village elders are basically like the unofficial leader of a village. and they were able to hear what their concerns were and needs are. the problem is in order to get to some of these remote places you have to pass through paved and unpaved roads. you can never be sure an ied has been planted there. that s how the taliban is fighting u.s. forces at this