Defense analyst Michael O'Hanlon is with the Brookings Institution in Washington: "You had friends and enemies everywhere on the battlefield, and so that,for the most part, meant that if you got into trouble as a westerner you had potential help not too far away."
VOA: standard.2010.04.06
The Taliban see the permission to open a Taliban office in Qatar and the exchange of the five detainees for a Westerner held captive by the insurgents as the first two steps required to establish trust between the parties, Mr. Agha said.