Talking With the Taliban?

A Canadian Liberal thinks its a grand notion. From the Globe and Mail:

Federal NDP Leader Jack Layton says Canada should pull its soldiers out of their Afghanistan combat mission by February. He reiterates his party's belief that Canadian forces are spending too much time fighting the Taliban rather than pursuing development, an argument that glosses over a crucial point. It is difficult to develop anything as long as the enemy stands ready to blow it up or thwart those doing the developing...And what does he imagine that the Taliban -- oppressors of girls and women, scourge of those it considers heretics, agents of suicide bombs in crowded marketplaces, destroyers of historic Buddhist carvings -- might seek at such a table? A cabinet post? A payment in return for respecting a multi-party government, not burning schools because girls attend them, not killing people it disagrees with and not providing a haven for al-Qaeda?

Think he's been talking to some American appeasers of terrorists.