President Trump. New York Times.
President Trump abruptly canceled a secret meeting with the Taliban after they admitted to a suicide bombing that killed 12 people, including an American soldier. New York Times. President Trump announced on Twitter that both the leadership of the Taliban and the President of Afghanistan, Asharf Ghani were due to meet the President at Camp David on Sunday. However, he called off the meeting after the bombing. President Trump has been working at withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan as he campaigned on ending wars, but has had difficulty with the situation there.
Unbeknownst to almost everyone, the major Taliban leaders and, separately, the President of Afghanistan, were going to secretly meet with me at Camp David on Sunday. They were coming to the United States tonight. Unfortunately, in order to build false leverage, they admitted to..— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2019
....an attack in Kabul that killed one of our great great soldiers, and 11 other people. I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations. What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position? They didn’t, they....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2019
My Comment:....only made it worse! If they cannot agree to a ceasefire during these very important peace talks, and would even kill 12 innocent people, then they probably don’t have the power to negotiate a meaningful agreement anyway. How many more decades are they willing to fight?— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 7, 2019
Somewhat shocking Saturday night news. Though everyone was aware that negotiations were ongoing with the Taliban, I don't think many people knew that they had been invited to America to sign a deal. I suspected meetings would happen but not so soon.
President Trump called it off because of a bombing that killed 12 people, including a American soldier. I think that's a fairly good reason to pull out of talks. The idea that the Taliban can kill one of our soldiers and then negotiate is not going to fly. Not only is it a middle finger to the United States it would also cause his media critics to attack the President.
Which makes me wonder why the Taliban did this in the first place? Did they think they could just get away with it? If so they should realize that President Trump isn't afraid to walk away. He did so with Kim Jong Un and he did it again today.
It's also possible that this was a rouge operation. It could have been someone who acted without authorization or it could have been a disagreement within the organization. I guess it's possible that some other terror group like al-Qaeda or ISIS could have done this but I doubt it. The Taliban admit to it so I think it's pretty clear that they did.
I think this is going to embolden President Trump's neocon critics who always hated the idea of withdrawing from Afghanistan. They never thought that negotiation was the right thing to do. In their eyes the risk of a terror group using Afghanistan as a base is too great and worth the billions of dollars and hundreds of lives we waste there.
I disagree with that stance pretty strongly. The war in Afghanistan has gone on far too long and we have already succeeded in our main objective, which was destroying al-Qaeda. The al-Qaeda organization that carried out the 9/11 attacks no longer exists in a meaningful fashion. Though ISIS is still in Afghanistan, we have little reason to keep fighting the Taliban. Eventually wars have to end and this is a huge setback. I think it's the right call given the circumstances but it's still frustrating.
Are talks done for good? I'm not sure. President Trump really does want to pull out of Afghanistan and I think that eventually he will succeed. It might take his 2nd term but I think it will happen. Nobody said it was going to be easy and I do hope that it will work out in the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment