TFG's deal with the Taliban, explained
As criticism of the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal continues to build, President Biden has argued that he effectively had little choice in the matter. A deal President Donald Trump cut with the Taliban last year forced Biden to choose between a withdrawal now and an escalation of the war, Biden says. And as The Fix’s Aaron Blake notes, with the brutal Taliban regime retaking power, former Trump officials are suddenly and conspicuously scrambling to distance themselves from that deal.
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With the deal now getting new scrutiny — along with the rest of how the war was prosecuted — we thought it worthwhile to provide some background.
Why Trump cut the deal
When Trump came into office, he was pretty transparent — he just wanted out. “Trump had no real sense of what was at stake in the war or why to stay,” writes Georgetown professor Paul Miller in a digestible history of the 20-year war.
So Trump took a swing at something his predecessors hadn’t: a full-bore effort to strike a deal with the Taliban. It took nine different rounds over 18 months. At one point, Trump secretly invited the Taliban to the presidential retreat, Camp David, on the eve of the 9/11 anniversary. But he shut that down — and on Twitter threatened to shut down all talks — after an American service member was killed and there was bipartisan backlash over the invitation.
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https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/trumps-deal-with-the-taliban-explained/ar-AANxQet