The Vice President on Afghanistan at NATO

In Brussels today at NATO Headquarters, Vice¹ President Biden stated his purpose at the meeting: "I came to listen."
 
What we want to learn is what your countries believe are working, what you think is not working, how we can do a better job in stopping Afghanistan and Pakistan from being a haven² for terrorists.  And the United States believes that we share a vital security interest in meeting that challenge.
 
The Vice President emphasized how much value he and the President see in America’s alliances, and explained from experience how consensus³ can be built not just amongst international governments, but amongst the peoples of those countries:
 
I had been a United States senator for 36 years before becoming Vice President.  I have made multiple trips to this building.  I've observed when we consult, when we genuinely consult, when we internally argue and bang out our differences, we generate the kind of consensus that our political leadership needs to take to our own people to make the case about what we've decided⁴.
 
The Vice President was also asked about the new strategy being considered by the President in Afghanistan of talking with moderate elements of the Taliban:
 
Well, let me just say -- and to paraphrase⁵ Secretary Holbrooke, our Special Envoy⁶, and I agree with his assessment⁷ after numerous visits to the region and throughout the country -- 5 percent of the Taliban is incorrigible⁸, not susceptible⁹ to anything other than being defeated.  Another 25 percent or so are not quite sure, in my view, the intensity¹⁰ of their commitment to the insurgency¹¹.  And roughly 70 percent are involved because of the money, because of them being -- getting paid.
 
To state the obvious, as you know, the Taliban, most of whom are Pashtun -- you have 60 percent of the Pashtun population in Pakistan; only 40 percent live in Afghanistan.  The objectives that flow from Kandahar may be different than Quetta, may be different than the FATA.  So it's worth exploring.
 
The idea of what concessions¹² would be made is well beyond the scope of my being able to answer, except to say that whatever is initiated¹³ will have to be ultimately initiated by the Afghan government, and will have to be such that it would not undermine a legitimate¹⁴ Afghan government.  But I do think it is worth engaging and determining whether or not there are those who are willing to participate in a secure and stable Afghan state.