Bombing rocks Kabul as U.S. envoy announces draft troop pullout deal with Taliban

[muriel_volestrangler]

draft peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban would withdraw 5,400 U.S. troops from five bases in Afghanistan within five months of the deal being signed, the top U.S. negotiator said Monday after briefing Afghan officials.

In an interview with Afghan news outlet ToloNews, U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad described the proposed plan as “an agreement with the Taliban in principle” but cautioned that “it is not final until the president of the United States also agrees to it.”

In a meeting last month, President Trump gave Khalilzad the go-ahead to finalize such a deal.

Khalilzad, in the interview on Monday, declined to name the U.S. bases that would be affected but noted that any withdrawal would be contingent on the Taliban abiding by the terms of the agreement. In exchange for the initial troop withdrawal, which would amount to more than one-third of the U.S. troop presence in the country, the Taliban would cut ties with al-Qaeda and provide counterterrorism guarantees.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/us-envoy-to-taliban-talks-us-would-pull-out-troops-135-days-after-peace-deal-is-signed/2019/09/02/bc8f2b10-cd74-11e9-87fa-8501a456c003_story.html?noredirect=on

Rather surprising that this hasn't had discussion on DU, even if only to note that the proposal seems to be "pull out some US forces, and we really, really promise not to work with al Qaeda or ISIS - we'll just attack your Afghan government allies on our own". Which doesn't sound like a great deal to me (good for the withdrawn 5,400, of course).

Anyone who was grown-up at the time think this seems a bit like the US withdrawal from Vietnam? Inevitable, and showing the huge problems that foreign wars cause?

[Kurt V.]

1. a peace agreement between the us and the taliban is inadequate. Afghan govt needs to lead here.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. The Taliban's been refusing to talk to the Afghan govt

I think they saw getting the USA to start leaving as a good way of putting pressure on the government, who'll have to negotiate from a weaker position. The continued attacks indicate the Taliban isn't rushing to deal with the government yet - they seem to have the ability to kill a lot of people to make their points.

[Kurt V.]

4. thnx for the info

[maxsolomon]

3. I posted in a discussion last week on this topic:

It was about Bolton being frozen out: https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=12423371

Basically, Trump is conceding Afghanistan to the Taliban so he can lie about it in his re-election campaign.