First, he acknowledges that there's a desire for a peace deal some day.
The commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said he hopes increased troop levels will weaken the Taliban enough that its leaders will accept a peace deal.
U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal told the Financial Times in an interview published on Monday that there had been "enough fighting" and held out the possibility the Taliban could eventually help run the country.
"It's not my job to extend olive branches, but it is my job to help set conditions where people in the right positions can have options on the way forward," he said.
"I think any Afghans can play a role if they focus on the future, and not the past," he said when asked whether he would be content to see Taliban leaders in a future Afghan government.
Which isn't really all that far-fetched. After all, the point is to kill enough of them to get them to quit. Is that all of them? Maybe. But if you kill a bunch and the rest quit, wouldn't that be OK, too?
The BBC also offers a forward-looking perspective based on troop levels and expected activity there.
He said the arrival of the extra 30,000 US troops pledged by President Obama and the additional 7,000 troops promised by other Nato countries should deliver "very demonstrably positive" progress in 2010.
But he warned that the level of Taliban violence could increase sharply this year.
The Taliban wanted to create the perception that Afghanistan was on fire, and that President Karzai and his Western allies could not cope, Gen McChrystal said.
However, if the new US-led strategy was successful, the militants "could look desperate" in a year's time, he said.
"I think they will look like an entity that will be struggling for its own legitimacy... I think they will be on the defensive militarily, not wiped out."
On the issue of reconciliation, Gen McChrystal said: "I believe that a political solution to all conflicts is the inevitable outcome. And it's the right outcome."
By: Brant
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