While some opponents of the Afghan peace deal continue agitating to delay the pullout even further, the White House reported Wednesday that the US has seen no new violence from the Taliban against US troops at all, and that indeed there hasn’t been any increase since February of 2020, when the pullout deal was made.
That’s an impressive span of time, because while not attacking US troops was part of the deal, the US repeatedly stepped up attacks on the Taliban, and still managed not to provoke retaliation. Even Taliban frustration at the US backing off the first pullout date didn’t lead to attacks.
The US troops have not faced a significant attack, or casualties, since the deal was made, and at most the Pentagon has at times mentioned “small, harassing attacks” which had no impact on US operations.
There is definitely no excuse for the US to not withdraw as promised at this point. The Taliban is complying and then some, and the US has more than enough time to meet the present pullout date of 9/11.
Instead of trying to provoke the Taliban or manufacture an excuse to keep delaying matters, the time remaining would be best used in trying to work out a peace deal within Afghanistan, something both the Afghan government and Taliban have been trying do, albeit not to much success so far.
The Taliban isn’t stupid. They know that any of our lovable huggable troops being killed will set the jingoism aflame. I can only imagine the hawks longing for just one sacrificial lovable huggable lamb being offed so we can ramp this thing back up.