Todd, NBC’s Chief White House correspondent and political director, was reacting to a report that the government of Pakistan has reached a deal with the Taliban regarding the northern Swat region of Pakistan, and suggested something similar could be in the offing in Afghanistan.

CHUCK TODD:  I want to go to this Pakistan deal with the Taliban.  I think this is foreshadowing something.  We’re going to have to figure out how to give the Taliban a role somewhere in Afghanistan if we’re going to get out of there without it looking like a failure.  If we make eliminating Taliban the goal, we will be in Afghanistan for decades. Not years, decades.

“Absolutely,” agreed Robin Wright, whose “Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East,” will soon be available in paperback.In comments to FinkelBlog, Todd noted that think tanks on the right and left have floated similar suggestions.   For that matter, there is a report out that the Afghanis have already commenced secret negotiations with the Taliban, brokered by the Saudis.

Wright also drew the comparison of our efforts in Afghanistan with those of the Soviet Union.

ROBIN WRIGHT:  The problem is, when you look down the road at the extra troop deployment [being proposed by the Obama administration], the Soviet Union had over 100,000 troops for over 10 years in Afghanistan, and failed.  We have 30,000, just over 30,000 now, we’re going to double it in the next six months to 60,000. We’ve been there seven years.  The prospects for us getting out in that ten year window the Soviets tried are virtually nil now.  Anbar, the surge idea, is not going to work in Afghanistan.   You’re dealing with very different societies.  In Iraq, you had an educated group of people who were fairly sophisticated.  In Afghanistan, you’re dealing with over 50% illiteracy.

So . . . are Todd and Wright proposing a dangerous compromise in the war against terrorism, or sounding the voice of realpolitik about a region that no foreign power has ever managed to pacify?