The Trump administration is pressing to open formal peace talks with insurgents in Afghanistan by April, a timetable driven by the president’s mounting impatience with the stalemated 17-year-old war. The short-term goal, current and former officials say, is a cease-fire agreement to at least temporarily curtail an alarming rise in attacks by Taliban insurgents that have caused hundreds of Afghan civilian and military casualties a month.
But prospects for a far-reaching political settlement still appear dim….Without signs of progress in coming months, Trump could face the same dilemma as his predecessors: withdraw all or most of 14,000 U.S. troops and risk a Taliban takeover, or leave them there indefinitely, even though he and his advisors consider the war unwinnable.
I’m sure the Dealmaker-in-Chief will have no problem with this. Just like he’s had no problem negotiating with China, North Korea, Canada, Mexico, Russia, and about half of Europe.
But the thing that should make it go really swimmingly is that he’s apparently made it plain that he’s sick of the whole war and just wants to withdraw. That’s exactly the kind of thing that usually brings fanatical insurgents to the table, amirite? Nice work, Donald.
