(Time Magazine) Bombs Explode in Afghanistan, While Seats Go Empty in Bonn

When Afghan President Hamid Karzai, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, along with some 100 high-level Afghan and International delegations, met in Bonn for a conference on Afghanistan’s future on Dec. 5, the star-studded (at least in the foreign policy firmament) gathering was made more remarkable for who didn’t show up: Pakistan’s foreign minister and a representative from the Taliban. Considering that those two elements hold the keys to Afghanistan’s long term stability, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that Bonn II, held exactly 10 years after the first international conference on the country’s future, would be more fizzle than pop. Early U.S. hopes that Bonn II would unveil a political reconciliation between the Afghan government and the Taliban were scotched in September when the insurgent group demonstrated its intentions with a turban bomb that killed a top peace negotiator. And Pakistan pulled out in a huff last week after NATO forces mistakenly killed 24 soldiers in a cross-border conflagration in November.....Continue Reading....