Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

The capture of Mullah Baradar

Like many, I had been wary of assigning too much meaning to the capture of Taliban big turban Mullah Baradar in Karachi. After all, as one of the commenters on this blog said, it seems like whenever the U.S. government leans on the Pakistani government, they throw the Americans a bone. But old Steve Coll, ...

Like many, I had been wary of assigning too much meaning to the capture of Taliban big turban Mullah Baradar in Karachi. After all, as one of the commenters on this blog said, it seems like whenever the U.S. government leans on the Pakistani government, they throw the Americans a bone.

Like many, I had been wary of assigning too much meaning to the capture of Taliban big turban Mullah Baradar in Karachi. After all, as one of the commenters on this blog said, it seems like whenever the U.S. government leans on the Pakistani government, they throw the Americans a bone.

But old Steve Coll, who was interested in the Taliban before it was cool, says this is indeed a major move. His interpretation is that Baradar wasn’t down with Pakistan’s negotiating strategy in Kabul. So Coll calls this "unadulterated good news out of Pakistan." Good enough for me.

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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