America’s Horrible, Terrible, No-Good Deal in Afghanistan
“The Art of the Deal” am I right?
Last week, the United States signed a peace deal with the Taliban in hopes of ending America’s longest war in Afghanistan. It’s an awful deal that will end up doing more harm than good. The peace agreement encompasses four main areas: cease-fire, withdrawal of foreign troops, intra-Afghanistan negotiations, and counterterrorism assurances.
Before going any longer, let us remember who the Taliban are. They are a totalitarian Islamic group that was once the ruler of Afghanistan. They housed and protected al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, the group and man responsible for the September 11th attacks in New York City, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. After 9/11, the Taliban’s refusal to hand over bin Laden is what caused the United States to invade Afghanistan, overthrow the Taliban, and start the War on Terror.
Now back to the agreement. Part one of the agreement states: “The United States is committed to withdraw from Afghanistan all military forces of the United States, its allies, and coalition partners… within fourteen (14) months following the announcement of this agreement…” The United States even agreed to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners, although Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he would not commit to releasing them.
This alone is just one reason why this agreement is so bad. As former presidential envoy Brett McGurk said, “The withdrawal provisions in this Afghanistan agreement seem far more comprehensive than advertised. It’s a TOTAL withdrawal of ALL American and NATO forces within 14 months. That would likely produce a gradual collapse of the state, civil war, and the Taliban back in Kabul.” Imagine if that did happen, what would the United States do? What if the Taliban allowed al-Qaeda back in to plan another terrorist attack?
According to the peace agreement, the Taliban are not supposed to allow that. Provisions in the agreement state that the Taliban “will not allow any of its members, other individuals or groups, including al-Qaeda, from using the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies.” Other provisions state that the Taliban will make sure to prevent terrorists from using Afghanistan to recruit and train other terrorists, allow terrorists to seek asylum in the country, and will not work with any terrorist group to harm the United States.
It is laughable to think that the Taliban will actually commit to this; they cannot even keep the peace-fire like they promised in the deal. Do we really expect them to begin being friendly with the United States and fighting terrorists for us? The Trump administration certainly does.
This deal with the Taliban is a disaster. It makes the United States look like a dunce, and it will do more harm than good to our national security. You do not negotiate with terrorists, nor can you let them win. The fact of the matter is that U.S. troops are going to have to stay in Afghanistan for a very long time. Changes in strategy will have to be made, but gleefully signing a bad peace agreement with the Taliban is not the way to do it.
American foreign policy under the Trump Administration is horrendous. Our current strategy is, “Let’s bully our closest allies and friends while praising and cajoling the dictators in Russia, China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and North Korea.” Now we can add the Taliban to that list. Not only that, but President Trump even had a phone call with the Taliban’s leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. After the call, Trump said the same thing he has said about every other dictator he has spoken to: “The relationship is very good that I have with the Mullah.” Because, of course it is.
Senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies Thomas Joscelyn tweeted this: “The whole process has legitimized their [the Taliban’s] jihadi state—the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan—which they and al Qaeda have been fighting to resurrect since 2001. Normalizing the Islamic Emirate, regardless of how much ground they retake, will have effects far from Afghanistan.”
Indeed. If America is to continue to be the free world’s leader and retain its spot as the most powerful country in the world, then it has to start acting like it. But by coddling our enemies and alienating our friends, we are quickly losing the most important key to world leadership: moral authority. The Afghanistan peace agreement is not an agreement, but a surrender. There will be no peace. There never is with terrorists. If only the administration could understand that.
As former United States Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker told National Review’s Jay Nordlinger, “In Afghanistan, President Trump has a choice. He can follow Obama’s example and leave the country to the Taliban, or he can make clear that the United States has interests, values, and allies, and we will stand behind them.”
Unfortunately, President Trump has chosen the former, and that is disappointing.
