CNN-How To End The War In Afghanistan; Interview With Fareed Zakaria

Fareed Zakaria: CNN

(Story reported by CNN)

New York (CNN) -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai has started talks with representatives of the Taliban, a move that analyst Fareed Zakaria says could bring an end to the nine-year-long war.

Karzai convened a meeting Thursday with the Afghan Peace Council, which was formed to help negotiate with the Taliban. Referring to the militants, Karzai said, "I call on them once again to use this opportunity and say 'yes' to this endeavor. I want them to come and bring peace to this land."

The author and host of CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" spoke to CNN on Thursday. Here is an edited transcript:

CNN: Hamid Karzai has launched a council to help negotiate with the Taliban? What's the significance of that step?

Fareed Zakaria: I think it's about time. If you look at any good study of civil wars, what you find is that most of them end in a negotiated settlement. Maybe because Americans have the memory of our civil war in which the North crushes the South, we somehow think that that's how civil wars end. But that's actually is very unusual.

What normally happens is some kind of settlement that is negotiated in which the losers are reintegrated into the political order. Civil wars are unlike normal wars, because the winners and losers are going to have to live with one another.

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