Speaking on the Afghanistan peace plan over the weekend, Defense Secretary Mark Esper emphasized that it poses a risk, but ultimately conceded that the US must give peace a chance.
After 19 years of failed war, the US continues to be a reluctant partner at best for a deal ending the war in Afghanistan. The lack of progress seems to have them obliged to at least approach a drawdown.
Still, the US isn’t in any rush for this deal, and the reduction of violence deal, which Trump insisted upon, remains uncertain, with the US still not setting a date for that deal to begin.
The Afghan peace deal has been available for months, with the US consistently backing away and adding new demands. The reduction of violence was the most recent demand, and right now there seems to be a holding pattern on the US going with that or trying to drag things out even longer.
The prospect of peace causes more consternation for the US Govt than war. That’s just talking about peace, not justice, or accountability or anything like that. Just “stop shooting and go home” makes them panic. It’s like they’re more afraid of going home to their wives than they are of the Taliban..
Well to be fair the Taliban aren’t killing that many Americans. It could be that more American soldiers will be killed by their wives ( or kill their wives) than will die by enemy action.
“Mark Esper emphasized that it poses a risk, but ultimately conceded that the US must give peace a chance.”
I bet John Lennon just rolled over in his grave and wretched.
The Taliban know that the US “going home” will not include the extensive CIA/Mossad opium operations in Afghanistan. Opium cultivation there was all but shut down by 2001 when the US invaded. According to this article “there were 189,000 heroin users in the US in 2001, before the US-NATO invasion of Afghanistan. By 2016 that number went up to 4,500,000 (2.5 million heroin addicts and 2 million casual users).” Those of us who are teachers are seeing the effects of this heroin epidemic on our students now coming into high school from broken homes and addicted parents.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-spoils-of-war-afghanistan-s-multibillion-dollar-heroin-trade/91