Day 1,209: Trump’s ‘peace deal’ with Taliban gets more farcical
In late February, the Trump administration tried to quietly end the war in Afghanistan by agreeing to a sham of a deal with the Taliban.
Meeting with Taliban negotiators in Doha, Qatar, the U.S. came to an agreement that would see the total withdrawal of the 12,000 U.S. forces in the region within 14 months. Those forces do everything from training and supporting Afghan forces to engaging in counter-terrorism missions.
As part of the negotiations, the U.S. agreed to the release of 5,000 Taliban fighters from Afghan prisons in exchange for the promise that the Taliban wouldn’t use Afghanistan as a home base to attack the U.S.
The deal followed a litany of other international deals that were horrific for Donald Trump and his team.
Trump has touted himself as a great and tough negotiator, but time and time again — Mexico paying for a border wall, a trade war with China, getting Iran to sign a new nuclear agreement, getting North Korea to halt their nuclear program, getting the world to sign into a new carbon emissions deal — he has failed miserably.
Here, he’s pushing for the release of thousands of former Taliban fighters — terrorists, as many would call them — in exchange for a promise not to do again what they did nearly 20 years ago.
Tuesday, Trump’s peace deal got even more laughable as the Afghan government announced that the Taliban would be retaliated against for their recent terrorist attacks in the country.
As part of the deal negotiated between the Trump administration and the Taliban, the Afghan government, although not party to the agreement, agreed to suspend offensive operations against the Taliban and expressed willingness to partake in a ceasefire with the insurgent group.
Far from peace, after the deal was signed, the Taliban got more aggressive.
[I]n the weeks following the signing of the deal, the Taliban ramped up its attacks on Afghan soldiers and police and the number of civilian deaths attributed to the group also increased, according to the UN.
Trump and his team tried to get to any semblance of something they could call a “deal,” even if longtime terrorists on the other side of the table were never acting in good faith, were never going to honor anything signed and were poised to get major concessions from the U.S. It was a farce when it was signed and it becomes even more so every day.
1,209 days in, 253 to go
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