Hard to follow where Murray McCully is at in terms of the proposal that emerged from the London conference to pay some moderate Taleban to lay down their arms. The Herald reports McCully as saying ” We won’t pay Taleban to give up arms” In the article McCully says they would support reintegrating Taleban fighters into society

But anything that involves significant amounts of money being used for reintegration needs to be looked at very carefully to make sure there are no funds travelling to people we would not wish to be supported.

However the Press quotes McCully talking about the fund

“It makes sense to try to provide an alternative for low-level Taleban operators who have not been involved in any serious deeds and who are not fanatically committed to creating disorder,” McCully said.

National’s positioning on Afghanistan will be interesting to watch in the next while. They certainly made a mess of the SAS/Willie Apiata photo saga. John Key was talking exit strategies some months back, but McCully’s desire to stay on side with the US is strong.