Someone had to give, and the headline spells a stunner: "Taliban to free all 19 hostages, South Korea says."
One paragraph down: "But a Taliban spokesman declined to comment on the announcement, saying only that negotiations were successful and the governor of the Afghan province where the hostages were seized said talks were still going on." [1]
Fulfillment of the favored outcome should end the Taliban's interest in kidnapping as well as dampen its enthusiasm for violent leverage: after six weeks of threats and demands, it has not gotten its prisoner swap.
The chief benefit to the Taliban, if any, is that it may look a little bit better in the news for releasing hostages rather than butchering them, and it may have produced some negative public relations points for the Karzai government and coalition forces, specifically to the effect that Afghanistan remains a serious war zone in which the Taliban continue to roam and attack at will.
On that last point, South Korea's agreement to withdraw (albeit on schedule) its engineering and medical support from coalition operations as well as bar its nationals from travel to Afghanistan plays favorably to the Taliban's contention that it was born to rule the country.
Correspondence and Permissions: James S. Oppenheim
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