Trump’s Afghan Peace Deal: A Farce the Afghan Government Was Not Invited

One-sided “Peace agreement” snookered the U.S.

(Taliban again running amok) 

Pop Quiz (two parts):

1. How to conclude a war between two warring parties, i.e., Afghan government & military against the radical terrorist-aligned Taliban?

Simple: Get all the parties together, agree to a cease-fire, and then get a peace treaty agreement signed to end the war, and then hopefully move forward peacefully.  

2. On the other hand, how NOT to end that same 20-year plus war?

Apparently: Get the warring party (Taliban) to agree to a settlement, in writing, along with a U.S. representative who supports the Afghan government & military, in a room but DON’T allow the Afghan government to attend and participate in the process.

That is precisely what happened in 2019 when Trump did that and now look at where Afghanistan is today: The U.S. has left, the Taliban are back in full swing, ready to capture Kabul (the Capitol), killing thousands along the way, and what are most Republicans and Trump spewing about that: “Blame Joe Biden and the DEMS – it’s their fault.”

The full story is here from Yahoo news from an expert: Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, appointed under G.W. Bush – his story with this headline:

“Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan blames the Taliban surge on Trump delegitimizing the Afghan government”

Crocker appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 Thursday (August 12), where he blamed former Trump for the Taliban’s recent surge in the country.

Key Background: Trump had planned to meet with Taliban leaders and the Afghan president at Camp David in 2019.

After the meeting was canceled, the U.S. representative for Afghanistan met with Taliban leaders in Qatar in February of 2020, where both sides signed a peace agreement (picture above).

Details of that Agreement: It was signed in Doha by the U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad, the chief U.S. negotiator in the talks with the Taliban, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's chief negotiator (picture above).

Mike Pompeo witnessed the signing, but no one was there from the Afghan government - None, nada, nil, zip, zero, goose egg.

Pompeo later told reporters: “The agreement outlines a series of commitments from the U.S. and the Taliban related to troop levels, counterterrorism, and the intra-Afghan dialogue aimed at bringing about a permanent and comprehensive ceasefire. This is a hopeful moment, but it's only the beginning. There's a great deal of hard work ahead on the diplomatic front.”

It’s from that meeting that Crocker believes the current situation in Afghanistan was born.

Not only were there no representatives from the Afghan government present at the meeting, but Afghanistan was asked to make certain concessions to the Taliban.

Crocker said: “In my view, we bear a major responsibility for this. Began under President Trump when he authorized negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban without the Afghan government in the room. That was a key Taliban demand. We acceded to it, and it was a huge demoralizing factor for the Afghan government and its security forces. We pressed them to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners. Eventually they did it, and then we watched them go back into the fight against the people who released them. So this is a year and a half worth of demoralization. Now this abrupt withdrawal on our part, I think, solidifies it. So it's like any complex phenomenon. There are a number of reasons for the collapse, I think, of the Afghan forces, but we cannot ignore that we had a central role in delegitimizing them and their government. We were a major backer, of course, of the state and of its security forces. Symbolism counts, and the symbol of the U.S. military affecting a complete and final withdrawal was devastating. And again, it didn't happen overnight. This demoralization process, if you will, began the first day we sat down with the Taliban and excluded the Afghan government.”

My 2 Cents: So, how in the hell can Joe Biden be blamed for this? 

His only choices were: (1) Leave the U.S. in full strength there for another 20 years, or (2) abide the agreement and pull U.S. troops out.

Was all that clever or just plain stupid of Trump – did he cause the current resurgent, or not?

The facts laid out above by Ambassador Ryan Crocker are pretty clear and compelling – at least to me – hopefully to you, too. You decide.

The question now: What happens to Afghanistan? Not pretty I suspect.

Thanks for stopping by.