The US and Taliban had a virtually finalized deal in hand months ago, but President Trump walked away. When talks were finally set to resume, Trump insisted he was conditioning them on a ceasefire as part of the deal. Negotiators were wary, but the Taliban ultimately got their leadership to agree to the ceasefire as part of an overall peace deal.
Clearly not contented with getting what he wanted, President Trump is now saying that there can be no meaningful negotiations with the Taliban at all until they agree to significantly reduce violence.
It’s not clear how that would happen. The Taliban negotiators probably can’t go back to their leadership and say Trump has changed the conditions of the talks again. Moreover, Trump’s statement suggests he wants unilateral Taliban cuts in violence before talks, precluded a negotiated deal to cut violence on both sides.
The give-some, get-some negotiations that seemingly could end the US war in Afghanistan at any time now clearly aren’t Trump’s strong suit, and so long as the president looks at the Taliban agreeing to terms as a sign to demand even more, the war is just going to drag on for years more.
These wars have logics which could not be found in the wars it selves. Purpose has to be sought somewhere else.
British fought 2 big wars in Europe which didn’t make sense .
Is America being nudged to suicide ?
If Iran, China, and Russia were as diabolically inclined as the US, they would have long ago supplied the Taliban with weapons and “advisors”. The war would NOT be still ongoing, were they to have had such propensities…
Maybe they think the US spending trillions on never ending wars is a good thing. I remember the US saying we could give the Soviets their own Viet Nam by backing the opposition in Afghanistan way back when. So maybe they’re thinking the same way and allowing us to repeat our stupidity.
But don’t expect the same from the US.
https://news.antiwar.com/2020/01/21/us-airstrike-kills-15-civilians-in-western-afghanistan/