There are several sources of insecurity in Afghanistan. I mentioned one: all of those people affiliated with the drug business. We see that there is a strong correlation between the drug business and the armed conflict, the insurgency, which is made up of various components.
You have, at the core of this, a leadership and patrons who have a political or strategic aim. They are putting together these pieces for their benefit in order to reach their strategic goals--one through economic means, another through social pressure, another through tribal affiliation, and so on and so forth.
But the core that controls this armed insurgency is doing it, as I said, for geopolitical or political reasons. One is to make a comeback in Afghanistan and to basically say, “We want to impose Taliban-style rule in Afghanistan. That is the best formula for this country.” This has been overwhelmingly rejected by the Afghans and is not acceptable. The second is to basically provide a platform for some of their associates who have a global agenda of exporting terrorism, using terrorism as a political tool. There are also those who have an economic incentive, trying to make money by affiliating themselves with the most violent elements.
Then you have domestic constituencies that, for one reason or another, are dissatisfied with the governance, maybe, or not making enough money. Or they're part of rivalries that exist--some of them very historic rivalries--and are taking sides and creating instability for their own reasons.
Looking at all of this, you realize--and I will address this now, since I didn't have time to get to that question about reconciliation--that there are some people or some elements with whom the government can engage, and is engaging, in some kind of contact, first, and can then take on the following steps of establishing a dialogue and understanding, if possible. But then there are some elements--they either have a foreign allegiance or a terrorist linkage, or they have, as I said, a political motivation--with whom we know, for very obvious reasons, that we will not reach a compromise even if we try.
Then you have this issue: who is going to be accountable for all the murders that have taken place? Who is going to account for the blood that has been spilled not only over the past six or seven years but over the past 15 years, over the past 10 years in Afghanistan? Who is going to account for that as far as these opposition armed groups are concerned?
So we have to put everything into perspective. We have a door open to address this issue of insecurity, in some of its dimensions, with those elements that we think are amenable to some kind of outreach.
Then there are those who are not amenable. The word is out there; if any one of us thinks they can change.... I hope they can change, but we know that some are not ready to change under any circumstance.