As more suicide bombings happen in Lahore, Pakistan the man who “created” the Taliban in the 1980’s delivers a lot of insight into how they can be tamed and dealt with. Former head of the ISI spy agency, retired General Hamid Gul, was the Pakistani intelligence coordinator who worked with the CIA to fund and train the Mujahedeen’s fighting against the Soviets. He is also known as the “father of the Taliban.” The trained Mujahedeen later became known as the Taliban in the 1990’s. Now, both Pakistan and the United States have to deal with their own creation.

The first and foremost suggestion that General Hamid Gul has is to begin direct talks with Mullah Omar. In his opinion, he is the one who is responsible for the ideology and the overall direction of the Taliban. This is a plausible suggestion. It most likely has a lot of weight to it and is reasonable to consider by top Western politicians and military commanders. However, there is one huge “but” in this. The United States always brandishes a slogan – “We don’t negotiate with terrorists.”

Nevertheless, Gul asserted that the Taliban are not terrorists and that the White House was quick in branding them as such. Taliban do carry out terrorist tactics as that is their most feared card and aims to show the forces fighting them that they will not be tamed. So, an argument can be presented to the General against his decrying their branding the Taliban as a non-terrorist movement.

However, it does make sense to negotiate with Mullah Omar to at least find out what his conditions are and how they can be softened. Although the Taliban leader did state that a pre-condition to any discussion would be a complete withdrawal of foreign forces out of Afghanistan, Gul asserts that that is not a fixed demand. As a man who has helped organized and train the movement which became the Taliban, it would probably make sense to listen to what he has to say as he understand the mentality of the fighters, who he helped create.

The fighters, and even the Taliban field commanders whose deaths make headlines all the time, are not the big fish who should be chased. Most Afghans and fighters in the Taliban are uneducated and therefore are easy to brainwash. However, once an ideology is instilled in them, they follow it blindly and listen only to those who they trust and respect in their movement’s hierarchy.

Therefore, since the Taliban is a top heavy structure with a leader who sends the message down to the ranks, it only makes sense to begin talking to him first and foremost as his views are trickled down to the lower tier fighters and commanders. This has the potential to change the way the fighting is going. Talking to Mullah Omar is the only plausible option in bringing relative peace and stability to both Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the meantime, suicide attacks and clashes will continue.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.