Politics | Taliban Taliban to West: We Mean You No Harm Group may be trying to sway Afghanistan strategy debate By Kevin Spak Posted Oct 8, 2009 11:00 AM CDT Copied U.S. forces speak with a local villager, during a joint Afghan-U.S. patrol in an area frequented by Taliban militants, in Nawa district, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Monday, Sept. 28, 2009. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) With the US debating what to do in Afghanistan, the Taliban has announced it poses no threat to the West. “We did not have any agenda to harm other countries, including Europe, nor do we have such agenda today,” said a statement posted on Taliban websites. The group warned, however, that it was ready for a “prolonged war” if the West persisted in trying to “turn the country of the proud and pious Afghans into a colony.” The statement may be a sign that the Taliban is reconsidering its relationship with al-Qaeda, or it may simply be an attempt to muddy the waters in the strategy debate over Afghanistan, the Guardian speculates. The statement added that those now being killed or displaced in Afghanistan "were not involved in the (9/11) events of New York." Read These Next Gavin Newsom has filed a massive lawsuit against Fox News. Actor Sam Rockwell gets residuals from movie he wasn't in. New York Times ranks the best movies of the 21st century. Raw-meat-eating 'Liver King' arrested for Joe Rogan threats. Report an error