Once Leading The War Of NATO Troops In Afghanistan, British Military Commander: Taliban 'Children Of The Village'

General Sir Nick Carter while serving as Commander of ISAF Southern Regional Command. (Wikimedia Commons /Lance Cpl. Dwight A. Henderson)

JAKARTA - The world must give the Taliban room to form a new government in Afghanistan, and perhaps find insurgents regarded as militants by the West for decades have made more sense.

This phrase came out not from random people, but from General Sir Nicholas Patrick Carter, the British Military Commander with a series of experiences in international combat, including in Afghanistan and facing the Taliban.

General Sir Nick Carter, Britain's chief of defense staff, said he had been in contact with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who Carter said he would meet with the Taliban on Wednesday.

"We have to be patient, we have to hold back and we have to give them space to form a government. We have to give them space to show their credentials. Maybe this Taliban is a different kind of Taliban to what people remember from the 1990s", Carter said quoting Reuters from the BBC Wednesday, August 18t.

"We may find if we give them space, that these Taliban certainly make more sense, but what we absolutely have to remember is, they are not a homogeneous organization. The Taliban is a group of distinct tribal figures who have come from all over rural Afghanistan", continued this British Army general.

General Sir Nick Carter. (Wikimedia Commons/Robert Thaler)

Carter said the Taliban were basically 'country boys' who lived by the so-called 'Pashtunwali', the traditional tribal way of life and the Pashtun code of conduct.

"Maybe the Taliban make more sense. It's less repressive. And indeed, if you look at the current way of governing Kabul, there are some indications that it makes more sense", he said.

Earlier, a Taliban official said the leaders would show themselves to the world, unlike in the past when they lived in secret.

"Slowly, gradually, the world will see all our leaders, there will be no shadow of secrecy", a senior Taliban official told Reuters.

To note, Afghanistan and the Taliban are not new to Nick Carter. He served as Commander of Southern Regional Command in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO military mission in Afghanistan in 2009 with the rank of major general.

His success served in the region, including Kandahar, the home of the Taliban. Nick Carter was promoted to the position of Deputy Commander of ISAF in 2012 with the rank of lieutenant general.