US set to pay Taliban members to switch sides

The top commander in Afghanistan has backed the plan for the Taliban. "Most of the fighters we see in Afghanistan are Afghans, some with (a) foreign cadre with them," said Gen. Stanley McChrystal in a July 28 Los Angeles Times interview.
Most are not ideologically or even politically motivated, he said in the interview.
"Most are operating for pay; some are under a commanders charismatic leadership; some are frustrated with local leaders."
But Nicholas Schmidle, an expert on the Afghanistan-Pakistan region for the non-partisan New America Foundation, cited by CNN said that while the plan has a "reasonable chance for some success", the old Afghan saying - "You can rent an Afghan, but you can't buy him" - will eventually be borne out.
"So long as the Americans are keenly aware of this, you're buying a very, very, very temporary allegiance," he said. "If that's the foundation for moving forward, it's a shaky foundation."
CNN security analyst Peter Bergen said the idea of paying off Taliban members to quit is nothing new. "There's been an amnesty programme for low-level Taliban in place for many years now and thousands of people have taken advantage of it," he said.