Trump Upbeat on Taliban Deal Despite Comments From ‘Officials’

Unnamed officials claim secret intel shows Taliban won't honor pact

As with anything remotely related to a peace deal, the Trump Administration has a plethora of anonymous officials willing to come out against the idea of peace in Afghanistan. NBC News quoted three totally unnamed “officials” on this.

Those officials, not identified beyond some indications of defense ties, all claim the US has secret intelligence that they say proves the Taliban don’t intend to honor the deal. Rather, they believe the Taliban only made the deal to get the US to leave Afghanistan.

President Trump, by contrast, was upbeat on the deal, saying he believes that the Taliban wants to make a deal, and that he had a very good conversation with Taliban leader Mullah Barader.

The officials are taking shots at Trump’s policy, and his assessment, saying they believe Trump plans to cut troop levels in Afghanistan no matter what the Taliban does. There is always a hawkish impulse among such officials opposing any troop cuts for any reason.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.