P
olitics
Why the US-Taliban Deal is Bound to Fail A Repeat of Obama’s Mistake in Iraq NO PEACE DEAL IS VIABLE WITHOUT THE INVOLVEMENT OF Late last week, the Taliban and the US signed a ALL PARTIES
by Ali El Shamy
historic peace deal. This seemed like a landmark moment in the US’s almost two-decade presence in Afghanistan as for the first time a glimmer of hope started forming around Afghanistan and its people. However, even during the talks, there were many analysts who questioned the longevity of a deal brokered with the Taliban, and the trustworthiness of the Islamist group was put in doubt. Lo and behold, just days after the deal was signed Taliban forces resumed fighting with Afghan security forces violating the “reduction in violence” agreed on. The Trump administration is desperate to fulfill one of its campaign promises, get American troops home and halt all the endless wars that the US has been involved in since the Bush Jr. administration. However, any rash moves could risk a repeat of the same mistakes the Obama administration did with Iraq, withdrawing too quickly and leaving a vacuum that terrorist groups filled almost overnight
Right from the start, the peace negotiations displayed one area of weakness, the lack of presence from the internationally recognized National Unity Government. This is critical since the government can easily deny any of the terms negotiated in the deal. Predictably, President Ashraf Ghani stated that he would not comply with the deal, which stipulated that the government would release 5,000 of the Taliban soldiers it had imprisoned. This is something that the Kabul government absolutely did not want as it would leave them with no leverage to negotiate within the upcoming intra-Afghan talks in Oslo. The Trump administration seemed adamant at first that the Afghan government would not be required to release any Taliban prisoners, and a recent tweet from US Representative Tom Malinowski stipulated that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised him
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06/03/20
