UK's Brown to Negotiate With Taliban

Winston Churchill is rolling over in his grave, while Neville Chamberlain does a happy dance.

Nothing like craven appeasement so early in your term.

This is really despicable and I would expect more from our ally than to give up and look to actually make peace with these primordial savages.

Gordon Brown will announce today that he intends to talk to the Taliban in a bid to end the war in Afghanistan.

In a major shift in UK foreign policy the Prime Minister is expected to tell the Commons today that negotiation is the only way to bring peace to the war torn country.

This year has been the deadliest in Afghanistan since the U.S. led invasion of 2001.

Since January more than 6,200 people have been killed including 40 British soldiers. In all, 86 British soldiers have died during the campaign which was launched to crush Al Qaeda and the Taliban following the September 11 outrage in America.

The change of tack will be seen as the latest attempt by the prime minister to distance himself from the foreign policy of Tony Blair and his ally George Bush.

In a landmark statement in the Commons he will say that the Cabinet has agreed a three pronged strategy for Afghanistan which will security guaranteed by NATO and the Afghan national army followed by economic and political development in the country.

The third prong of the plan is likely to be most controversial - to engage Taliban leaders in constructive dialogue.

The only thing constructive will be emboldening your enemies.

Now this part I'm curious about. There will be a firestorm if Washington is at all involved in this.

The move in Afghanistan is likely to cause concern in Washington, but a Whitehall source said that the policy had been taken in full consultation with the White House.

The announcement is bound to come as a shock to relatives of British soldiers who have died in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban.

Truly disturbing.