Trump’s Foreign Policy of Engagement Pays Off with Taliban Peace Talk Breakthrough

Shane Trejo   |  

Mar 14, 2019

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While it is news of Trump’s friendship with Kim Jong-un and the possibility of peace coming to the Koreas that dominate headlines, Trump’s incredible progress with the Taliban in Afghanistan has remained under the radar.

The fifth round of negotiations in Qatar taking place between the US and Taliban negotiators recently concluded, and it was the most fruitful round yet. They have reached an “agreement in draft” regarding certain key issues.

U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad announced the good news in a series of Twitter posts:
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(1/4) Just finished a marathon round of talks with the Taliban in #Doha. The conditions for #peace have improved. It’s clear all sides want to end the war. Despite ups and downs, we kept things on track and made real strides.

— U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) March 12, 2019

(2/4) Peace requires agreement on four issues: counter-terrorism assurances, troop withdrawal, intra-Afghan dialogue, and a comprehensive ceasefire. In January talks, we “agreed in principle” on these four elements. We’re now “agreed in draft” on the first two.

— U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) March 12, 2019

(3/4) When the agreement in draft about a withdrawal timeline and effective counterterrorism measures is finalized, the Taliban and other #Afghans, including the government, will begin intra-Afghan negotiations on a political settlement and comprehensive ceasefire.

— U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) March 12, 2019

(4/4) My next step is discussions in Washington and consultations with other partners. We will meet again soon, and there is no final agreement until everything is agreed.

— U.S. Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad (@US4AfghanPeace) March 12, 2019

The progress is flying in the face of what warmongering neoconservatives, who formed the foreign policy consensus during the George W. Bush administration, have been saying about Trump’s engagement of the Taliban.

“If you tell the Taliban that we are absolutely leaving on date certain, cutting down, weakening ourselves, their incentives to try to cut a deal drop dramatically,” said disgraced former Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who led wars during the Bush and Obama administrations, on ABC’s “This Week” last year

“The notion that we’re somehow going to have a negotiated deal with the Taliban, that we can take their word that they won’t allow al Qaeda to have safe havens again, is, in my view, irresponsible,” Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said to Jake Tapper of CNN last month

“While it is tempting to retreat to the comfort and security of our own shores, there is still a great deal of work to be done,” Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said about the possibility of withdrawal. “And we know that left untended, these conflicts will reverberate in our own cities.”

Even Trump’s own national security adviser John Bolton looks like a buffoon for his previous predictions regarding US engagement of the Taliban.

“The lesson for us is that we need to be there much longer than we were in the case of Iraq. We see chaos there, and I think if the administration continues to push for withdrawal from Afghanistan, we will see chaos there,” Bolton said during an appearance on FOX News in 2014.

The whining of these GOP dinosaurs only deepens the chasm between the Republican Party of Bush and the new Republican Party of Trump. The policies of engagement – whether happening with the Taliban in Afghanistan or Kim Jong-un in North Korea – are yielding encouraging results, and the days of the US empire serving as the world’s policeman may be coming to an end as a result.