Click to see full-size image
US President Donald Trump said that he would personally sign the peace deal with the Taliban group if it were to happen.
“Time to come home,” he said. “They want to stop. You know, they’ve been fighting a long time. They’re tough people. We’re tough people. But after 19 years, that’s a long time.”
The US and the Taliban announced the truce earlier in February.
It all depends on a 7-day reduction in violence, that started on midnight February 22nd against 23rd, Afghanistan time.
If the truce proves a success, it will be followed by the signing of the peace accord on February 29th.
“We think they want to make a deal. We want to make a deal. I think it’s going to work out. We’ll see,” Trump said.
Trump expressed cautious optimism about reaching a peace deal.
“You know we have a certain period of nonviolence. It’s been holding up, it’s a day and a half so we’ll see what happens. But people want to make a deal, and I think the Taliban wants to make a deal too, they’re tired of fighting.”
There is hope of reaching a peace deal.
“In general, we do see (a reduction in violence),” acting Afghan interior minister Masood Andrabi told AFP.
It should be noted that the “reduction in violence” is not a “ceasefire.” The United States, the Taliban and Afghan government forces are expected to largely end all offensive operations throughout the country.
No details have been released to measure the success of the reduction in violence period, though a senior administration official told reporters in Germany this month that the terms were “very specific.”
For the Taliban, that reportedly includes ending roadside bombings, suicide attacks and rocket strikes.
U.S. and Afghan forces, meanwhile, are expected to continue carrying out counterterrorism operations against ISIS and al Qaeda.
At a Pentagon briefing this past week, Rear Adm. William Byrne Jr. of the Joint Staff said Gen. Scott Miller, who leads U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, will oversee a “continual evaluative process” on whether the reduction in violence is holding.
The Pentagon hasn’t said whether the United States agreed to withdraw all troops, but officials have talked about keeping a counterterrorism force there for the time being.
Some US Senators are skeptical of the deal, such as Lindsey Graham.
He said said he was “willing to give” the Trump administration’s plan “a try.” But he also ticked off a list of conditions he would consider an “honorable resolution,” including a deal that protects human rights and women’s rights and allows the United States to continue to “protect the American homeland from international terrorists.”
Mac Thornberry, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, questioned how the United States would verify whether intra-Afghan talks are “real” or “a fig leaf.”
Lawmakers also noted the Trump administration was previously close to signing a deal with the Taliban before it fell apart at the last minute.
Furthermore, regardless of what the US calls it, and claims that the Taliban want it more than ever, the fact is that Washington is admitting that it lost the war, after nearly two decades of the intervention. The US has essentially said that it couldn’t deal with the Taliban group.
Trump will not only sign the US capitulation against the Taliban, he also boasts with it.
MORE ON THE TOPIC:
Well, 19 years of getting hammered and fuckall to show for $2 trillion waste what else can the Americunt cowardly losers do? Welcome to the graveyard of empires.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/89ae75bc4850a204bd29574892630a8ca944e272bf22d2f9f881daef3f87a91e.jpg
well well capitulation is very apt although I doubt dunny the dunce would approve of the use. it’s nothing but a costly defeat a la vietnam and nothing much they can do about it – a defeat is a defeat however much the morons twirl it in their minds, the useless feckers. and now Iraq awaits them and the Philippine and Duterte . not easy being big ugly and mean having lost a bundle or two of tax payers taxes while lookheed, northrop and others have stashed away billions in terms dividends and so on while the veterans are panhandling on the street corners.
It’s more shameful to willfully continue a war knowing you cannot win it, only because you refuse to be the one to admit that in public. This war has been kept going because Trumps predecessors refused to admit defeat and would rather pass the buck onto their successor. At some point you have to stop keep throwing money and lives to protect the vanity of generals and politicians. Kudos for Trum (if this goes ahead) for being willing to do so. That, if anything, takes more guts and is more presidential then launching a cruise missile attack just so the Washington blob and MSM will praise you.
The most shameful thing is to be YANKEES, …. and vote a parliament who shake hand tO criminals, … the last??? GUAIDO’ !!
Hate a country’s leaders or elites, NEVER its people. They do not have that much say in what their leaders or elites are up too. Either through dictatorial force or by skillful manipulation.
“If voting made a difference, they wouldn’t let us do it” Mark Twain.
Who counts the votes and how is more important than who votes.
Yup if this goes through. Now, how many times has trump signalled a pullback eleswhere(Syria for example), some fals flag happens to keep us troops there( thanks bolton you snake!!! We know it was you!!!).
Im worried there will be some insubordination, because the cia needs that heroin money too.
Trump has good intentions, once again but he will get cockblocked by his own people once again.
Maybe thats trump’s trick to fire pompeo??
Lets hope for the best for the Afghan people!
Yes I wonder if he really knows what is going on or is being corrected by his minders .
I don’t think trump has had a good intention in his life this is just him trying to get reelected
IMO, it’s more about making money and geopolitical agenda for the usual suspects than about winning. The denial we see and hear is really an excuse for the usual suspects.
war is profit for lockheed, northrop, boeing etc and as long as they can make new and exciting stuff and get pentagon to pay for it, so be it – we’re at war – yippie
Almost double the time of USSR in Afghanistan, americans are holed up on bases, not controlling half the territory USSR had and not to mention there is no superpower supporting the Taliban like USA supported it against USSR :)) US army is a joke..
You are 100% correct, the lardass Alericunt loser cowards are hiding behind blast walls at Bagram and what is even more surprising is that the Taliban have not been lobbying rockets or mortars into the bases as most are surround by mountains and could be another Dien Biein Phu. All these cowardly Americunt scum and their NATO arselickers have done is to bomb civilians indiscriminately and kill a million Afghans and displace another 6 million.
The soviet infrastuctre built in the villages way back when, such as schools, wells, roads ect are still there.
Americans did not rebuild a damn thing in the last 10 years, not a damn thing!!!
agree 100%.. didnt wanted to get my post too broad but would have used almost the same words..
Actually most of the Taliban were studying in their religious schools in Pakistan while others fought the Russians. When Russia left the other groups fought amongst themselves for control which is when the Taliban emerged and took advantage of the infighting and took control for them selves. I know since that event they have been credited with fighting the Russians but they did very little.
Taliban are supported by the same people that control nato and the us military the truth is the Americans have never tried to win this war in the conventional sense at least
How many steps will it take till he knows that too many people have died. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMFj8uDubsE
Capitulation ? Who is giving up, the US or the Talibans ? The Talibans are not the Bourgeois de Calais. Using such word as capitulation will not help negotiation
Lindsey Graham obviously still thinks that it was Bin Laden who blew up ground zero and murdered thousands of people. With thinking like this, what can go wrong?
I hope the Afghan people keep in mind that the habit of USadmins is to break any agreement whenever it suits them. They should also say ‘no’ to any US ‘counterterrorism force’ left behind to spy on Afghans and call in drone strikes. If the US really wants to clean house it should exonerate Bin Laden and the Afghan people from all blame for Sept 11th. Sept 11th was pure unadulterated US treason.
honorable resolution,” including a deal that protects human rights and women’s rights and allows the United States to continue to “protect the American homeland from international terrorists.”- somehow you are in wrong country…
Afghan women were forced to wear the burqa at all times in public, because, according to one Taliban spokesman, “the face of a woman is a source of corruption. Taliban Religious Police keeping women inline. Not much difference from ISIS https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8e6a397fdbb30ec2787acec7810977029b2cf21655aa03e9e6f70c00d1eec07f.jpg
Afganistan. is an lost war, to back out, is to do the only sane thing to do, its an waist of people and comers, for what, and 19 years late, two decades, before that more decades, and if the UssA wants an tiny force, left stranded, let them, but again, just to save an face witch have been scrapped bare years ago, the only reasonable thing to do is to let the Afgans do it, witch means not only Taliban, but there is an pack of war lords, etc, to clans, and then we have the Gov, witch by all means have been an freak show. And in the mean time, people die.
The thing is, Trump, because of inheriting an quag mire, an war deprived of meaning and so on, when peace comes, and we all know Afganistan have resources, and the draw back, because of no movement, is when you never the less, sooner or later, dravs out, you will loose the benefit of been the person whom just ended this stupid war, deals, and of course, since this is an multi-faseted reality, you have to fight others, incl Chines and Russians and so on, its an entire nation to build up, and if done properly, Afganistan can skip an century, they deserve it.
Taliban will of course, when peace is setled, setle them self, and forget the idiot propaganda, and give peace an chanse, and benefit from it, and time heals.
peace
Long overdue, but with Osama bin Laden out of the way and ISIS pushing for a foothold in Afghanistan, the Taliban and the u.s. just might have found a common enemy to make it happen.
The morons thought they were going to invade Iran from Afghanistan. Neocons don’t know how to read a map. :-)
yep thought they could use afghanistan as a startingpoint in the three tonged attack, from afghanistan, from the saudi-side and from iraq but iran is still far too large and the hormuz strait is just too iranian so the idea of a full frontal is scrapped for now (but bet the squatters are toying with their nukes and are itching to use them but even so, iran is far too large and there would be no future for the squatters anywhere should they resort to such desperate measures)
Kudos to the Donald. Once again, trying to do the right thing. The bad news is that doing the right thing will never be possible as long as our govt. institutions remain saturated with neocons/neolibs, dual-citizens, Zionist 5th columnists and other traitors. The best of efforts to achieve peace can (and will) always be sabotaged by a convenient false flag event or two. Wait for it.
Taliban have surrendered lots of times, and the USA then went around kicking in doors as neighbours in afghanistan settled old scores. Afghanistan ended up being turned into a continuation of operation PHOENIX from vietnam
Thanks to climate change BS and NATO’s thirst for oil. opium and oil are no longer USA priotrities as the comitment to zero carbon net emmissions requires a great deal of minerals to produce electric driven cars. So the new wars will be in mineral rich african continent. as ISIS is moved to libya, nigeria, somalia, and latin american countries
The biggest losers here are the Afghan people who don’t want nor deserve either the Taliban or the US presence. The Taliban are extremiists that rule with brutality . Despite wishing the US left Afghanistan I do not wish for the Taliban to regain and impose their medieval version of Islam on the people again. No girls allowed to go to school , no radio or TV , public beatings and worse for minor infractions of their rules which makes them little better than ISIS.
The whole of Afghanistan is medieval, it is not up to us, to judge and be critical of another Country; have you not learned that lesson yet.
Excuse me but I have been following events in Afghanistan ever since the Russians left as well as the insurgent wars in and from Tajikistan , Kyrgyzstan , Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. That is before 2000 so I do know a lot more about this than you give me credit for. As well as that I have spent time in that area so I will say whatever I like which is the Taliban are no better than ISIS not wanted by the people. I certainly know a lot more about that than you do.
Trump have no choice if he wants to remain in office. Full withdrawal would greatly help his re-election chances especially when Sanders is poised to take the Democrat nomination (assuming he doesn’t get screwed over again).
he will he will (sanders that is)
NO! Don’t pullout now guys!
If “we” just shovel a few more trillion fiat zogbux into the furnace known as Afghanistan, pretty soon the Afghans will all be watching the NFL on Sundays, buying double-anal porn, decorating their mancaves, saving their money to send their kids to respectable universities, investing in their 401k’s, celebrating diversity and exploring their 51 different forms of sexuality.
Afghanistan is a vital globohomo interest. Real warriors like Max Boot and Bill Kristol know this.