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November 15, 2009 (LPAC)—The London Guardian on Friday, Nov. 13, boasted that top British officials are promoting a "strategic" bargain between the Karzai government and Taliban, including the top Taliban leadership, operating from across the border in Pakistan. The move is coming directly from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office and MI6, with Sherard Cowper-Coles, the top British special envoy to Afghanistan, along with MI6 and Lt. Gen. Graeme Lamb, Britain's senior military representative in Afghanistan all leading the campaign. Gen. Lamb was dispatched to Afghanistan to make contact and negotiate with the Taliban. The Guardian obtained a leaked memorandum from the Foreign Office, spelling out a three-level "strategic initiative" to negotiate a power-sharing deal between Karzai and the Taliban. The proposal would lift UN sanctions against "reconciled Talibs," would integrate Taliban foot soldiers into the security services, return to power many Taliban "shadow governors" and senior commanders, and strike a grand bargain with the top Taliban leadership, who are running the insurgency from safe-havens inside Pakistan.

At the same time that the Brits are carrying out their typical gang-countergang efforts, Prime Minister Gordon Brown continues to pressure President Obama to boost U.S. forces in Afghanistan, promising that he can deliver 5,000 additional NATO forces, to complement the American troop buildup. Anyone smell a double-cross here?