The multi-dimensional conflict in Afghanistan ought not to militate against the tentative forward movement that was achieved in Qatar last Monday between the US and the Taliban. Though talks have been exploratory in nature, there may yet be hope of peace, considering that America has agreed to withdraw its troops from the direly fractured country within 18 months of a “full agreement”. The time-frame itself is a difficult proposition in a country where tension is integral to normal life and mayhem rages an inch beneath the chronically volatile surface. Innocents are killed and killed with abandon. It is quite another story whether in terms of internal security, Afghanistan can be left to the devices of the Ashraf Ghani dispensation or any other regime for that matter. The record since the Nato pullout in 2014 doesn’t inspire optimism. Under the terms of the draft framework, the insurgents will promise to stop the use of Afghan territory by terrorists. If indeed this can be achieved, it will signify a critical comedown on the part of the militants. There is little or no difference between such synonyms as insurgents, terrorists, and militants. Beyond linguistics, the impact of a disarmed Taliban across the border in Pakistan is dangerously real, and is bound to be a major headache both in Kabul and Islamabad not the least for a Prime Minister who has been office for barely six months. Rawalpindi GHQ’s talks with the Taliban have made no headway; the crisis has exacerbated with military courts sending the militants to the gallows. For every militant thus killed, two are born; the truism applies as much to Pakistan as it does to Afghanistan. President Ghani does deserve to be encouraged for the intiative, most particularly by the Western world. Enough have died and Afghanistan deserves peace like many other storm-centres in the world. The road to peace must be as rugged as the terrain itself. The draft, thrashed out in course of six days of talks in Qatar, requires the Taliban to agree to a ceasefire and to talk directly with the US-backed Afghan government led by President Ghani ~ two conditions which the Taliban have not agreed to. The fundamental problem, therefore, persists. The optimism expressed by the US special envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, may yet be dashed by dissent within the Taliban or opposition from the government in Kabul. Markedly, President Ghani has immediately expressed his doubts about a rushed process from which his ministers had been excluded. The Taliban refused to let the Ghani government, which it regards as a US puppet, accompany the Americans in the Doha talks. Pretty obvious is the short shrift accorded to the regime. Peace cannot be achieved through a Taliban-American arrangement; the government in Kabul must be included in the process. Confusion can only get worse confounded if dissent is the strand between the elected government and the Taliban. If Syria is any indication, militants do operate in a vacuum, and the Taliban may be only too anxious to exploit the dissent within.