Tag: Taleban

Peace Comes To Afghanistan

We have a peace deal……or should we more correctly call it a cessation of violence for a couple of weeks that could lead to a broader deal…..

Some have  asked….a peace deal but at what price?

Bitter experience shows that a “rotten compromise” will carry within it the seeds of future war.

Albert Einstein warned humanity to beware of rotten compromises. Philosopher Avishai Margalit sought to explain this warning in an entire book. With the U.S. and the Taliban poised to sign a peace agreement, now more than ever is the time to be wary of a “rotten compromise” on Afghanistan.

Rotten compromises, in the words of Margalit, are agreements that establish or maintain an inhuman regime, a regime associated with cruelty and humiliation, a regime that does not treat humans as humans. But a rotten compromise involves two sides – an active perpetrator committing the brutality, and the passive participant who supports and signs an agreement that maintains an inhuman regime.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2020/02/25/a_us-taliban_deal_what_price_for_peace_115068.html

Could this, if successful, be the road to a peace deal that would bring the US troops home…..and the same question could be asked……at what price?

This week: recent developments in the original 9/11 conflict, the war in Afghanistan. News reports suggest that the Trump administration is close to signing some kind of deal with the Taliban. But it’s not a peace accord. The emerging details of the deal—and the preemptive concessions the U.S. is apparently willing to make for the Taliban to agree to it—suggest that the deal is less about securing a lasting peace and more about political and diplomatic cover in anticipation of an exit decided on long ago. First, some background.

https://vitalinterests.thedispatch.com/p/are-we-headed-toward-an-ignoble-end

On a bummer side of this deal……

Arguments about the Afghanistan peace deal that the US is about to sign with the Taliban continue, with substantial concerns that secret annexes exist to the peace language which would threaten the deal’s sustainability.

Recent reports claimed that among a series of secret annexes, the US included language saying they’re not actually going to leave Afghanistan militarily, and that this seeming deal-breaker was accepted on the grounds it would be a secret.

Pressed on the matter, top Pentagon figures claimed complete ignorance on it. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Gen. Mark Milley both claimed to have no idea if there were ultimately any secret annexes.

Esper said he knew there were/are annexes to the final deal, but that he doesn’t know if any of them are formally secret or not, saying he would ask the Secretary of State at some point.

The chance of our troops coming home is appealing and I personally do not care about the consequences of our leaving……our troops have been there long enough…..long enough so that if progress could have been made it would have….it was not….time for us to depart.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Do We Have An Afghan Deal?

We have just posted on 2 more American deaths in Afghanistan and the next day there is word coming out that there is conditional peace deal with the Taleban….

US insists Taliban must reduce violence levels this month

The Taliban has publicly requested that the US provide clarification on their stance on the peace process. A deal which by all accounts was finished months ago, the Taliban are interested in where the US is going on the final deal.

It’s reasonable to ask, as since backing out of the last deal, President Trump has tried to add new conditions. Concerningly, Trump is now approving the deal, but only conditionally, and wants the Taliban to unilaterally cut violence in February first.

The US is planning troop cuts either way, but a concrete peace deal would oblige the US to actually leave Afghanistan, and almost certainly will establish a timetable for that. It would put an end to the US changing its mind on the war, as it has time and again over the last 19 years.

For the Taliban, the question is likely not so much about if they can cut violence, but if this time, meeting a Trump condition will net them anything. Trump had previously conditioned the deal on a ceasefire, and when the Taliban agreed he just added more demands.

(antiwar.com)

How close are we to a deal?

We have heard that it has been close before to fall apart only days later….so again how close are we?

If Trump and his bunch can find peace deal for Afghanistan war then they will have my undying thanks….any time we can find an end to a war then the props should go to those that find a way out.

And then there is the coming election…..and Afghanistan…..

Negotiation between the US and the Taliban is picking up pace. A partial ceasefire is expected to be agreed upon soon, and there is substantial hope that an outright peace deal could be reached shortly thereafter, if the US wants it.

US officials seem to be keen to emphasize the ceasefire, as opposed to the peace deal.That’s because President Trump is determined to carry out troop cuts ahead of the November election, and that’s the case whether or not the peace deal is reached.

Of course, the peace deal is already there to be had, and Trump has rejected it and added additional demands. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani noted “notable progress” on the peace deal front, saying the Taliban had made a proposal to deliver on President Trump’s demand for a violence reduction.

There is a growing risk that, as President Trump demands more from the Taliban, he may overreach and derail the peace process. This is possible, and it’s also possible Trump will just keep dragging on the war, even if troop cuts are in line before the election.

(antiwar.com)

One point….the Taleban protected the barbaric al-Qaeda and they attacked the US on 9/11 and now we are making nice with the Taleban….but will not talk with Iran….why is that?  (I know but do you?)

Let’s do the right thing and end this war once and for all.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Taleban In 2020

We enter another year of conflict in Afghanistan…..so let’s look at what is happening in the beginning of 2020….

First let’s look at what has happened in Afghanistan….

The Back Story to the ‘Afghanistan Papers’

Nextt there has been the inklings of a possible ceasefire in Afghanistan……the media hyped it….but is it?

The Taliban has denied press reports indicating the group was on the cusp of declaring a ceasefire in Afghanistan, saying this is “false and baseless.”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued an official statement (reproduced in full, below) denying the reports, which claimed that the group’s ruling council has approved a ceasefire, thereby opening the door for possible intra-Afghan negotiations. However, it was unclear if the reported ceasefire would include Taliban attacks against the Afghan government and security forces.

The reported ceasefire agreement was sourced to “Taliban officials familiar with the negotiations” who “spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media,” the Associated Press reported on Dec. 29.

https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2019/12/taliban-says-it-has-no-intention-of-declaring-a-ceasefire.php

The first report of the year and it is crappy news.

Since the Taleban is no longer the government of Afghanistan ever wonder where they get their money…I mean besides from the opium industry…..

Look NO further than American defense contractors…..

A lawsuit filed Friday claims that US and international contractors paid the Taliban protection money to complete projects in Afghanistan—and says that money was used to kill Americans, the Wall Street Journal reports. The plaintiffs are family members of 143 US service members and contractors who were wounded or killed there between 2009 and 2017. The accusation itself is nothing new—congressional probes have documented the funneling of such protection money to insurgents—but the lawsuit aims for a direct impact. “This will change the way business is done in war zones,” says August Cabrera, whose husband, Lt .Col. David Cabrera, died in a 2011 suicide car bomb in Afghanistan. “I believe that this can bring justice to those of us who have lost somebody.”

The suit says 20% to 40% of funds for big construction projects went to warlords and insurgent groups, when more than 100,000 US troops were serving in Afghanistan. The plaintiffs name specific projects, like the Kajaki Dam and part of Afghanistan’s Ring Road, as well as US-based companies including Black & Veatch Special Projects Corp., Centerra Group, and Janus Global Operations. Most of them aren’t talking, but a Black & Veatch rep says the company “followed directives of the US government” and is “proud of our record in successfully completing projects in Afghanistan,” per CNN. The money’s original source? Over a 10-year period, the US Agency for International Development in Afghanistan reportedly gave more than $1 billion to top contractors there.

Good to know that corporate profit is more important than American lives….

I am sure that there will be more shitty news from Afghanistan.

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More Afghanistan

A few months ago the peace talks between the US and the Taleban came to an end when the president called off the meetings…..then the “Afghanistan Papers” dropped and peed all over our whole narrative about the war…..and then our special envoy has pushed for a renewal of the talks….

US peace talks with the Afghan Taliban were going on in some shape or form secretly in recent weeks, but now that President Trump has publicly confirmed them, more specific details are being offered.

US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, the negotiator of the near-finished first peace process, is looking to accelerate things this time, stopping off in Kabul on Wednesday to meet with Afghan officials about the process on his way to Doha, where he will meet with the Taliban.

The Doha visit marks what US officials are terming the formal resumption of the Afghan peace talks, despite them having resumed awhile ago. The Taliban have expressed an expectation that the talks simply build off what was already agreed upon in September, when President Trump declared the process “dead,” and since Khalilzad is running talks past and present, it’s likely he’ll want to avoid a lot of reinventing the wheel after months of very productive talks.

President Trump has set up the expectation that the new talks would involve a ceasefire, and that’s also something Afghan officials are pushing for. US negotiators have previously warned a ceasefire right away might not be attainable, though Khalilzad likely will be obliged to bring that up, given the number of times it has been reported in the past week.

(antiwar.com)

As usual while we are seeking a peaceful resolution of our time in Afghanistan the Taleban keeps on keeping on…..

A powerful suicide bombing targeted an under-construction medical facility near Bagram airbase north of the capital Kabul, the US military has said.

While there were no US or coalition casualties, a medical base being built for locals was badly damaged, Resolute Support, the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement on Wednesday.

The US airbase remains secure, the statement said.

(AJE)

And their violence is not limited to the US troops and bases…..

The Taliban abducted as many as 45 elderly family members of a late Afghan government employee who were attending his funeral, officials said Tuesday.

The Taliban singled out the old men from a funeral procession carrying the deceased employee’s coffin to a graveyard, according to interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi. The young men in the group were not taken, he said.

The Taliban have consistently warned people not to attend the funerals of anyone working with the Kabul government, according to Payghambarpul Khuram, the head of intelligence in Jawzjan province, where the kidnappings took place.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/taliban-abduct-45-people-govt-134943143.html

While we talk the violence continues….while the violence continues then our troops are in danger…..

I am all for diplomacy…..but it needs to be within some sort of framework and so far I have not seen any framework only to talk and continue as always…..

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Afghanistan And Turkey

That is turkey with a small “T”…the bird not the country.

Amidst the deals on Black Friday another one is announced by the president in a visit to war torn Afghanistan during Thanksgiving…..

Talks were ended abruptly in September….as usual I had written about that situation as well……https://lobotero.com/2019/09/10/more-on-afghanistan/

A New Hope has been given to the conflict for an ending that will make all sides happy…..well the hope is more for a return to talks than for an actual peace agreement….

President Donald Trump made a surprise visit to Afghanistan to spend time with US troops on Thanksgiving, the AP reports. Trump arrived at Bagram Air Field shortly after 8:30pm local time and spent more than two-and-a-half hours on the ground. Reporters were under strict instructions to keep the trip a secret to ensure his safety. The visit comes more than two months after Trump abruptly broke off peace talks with the Taliban after a bombing in Kabul killed 12 people, including an American soldier. But Trump announced at the visit that he has resumed peace talks with the Taliban, per the New York Times.

“The Taliban wants to make a deal, and we’re meeting with them,” Trump said while meeting with Afghanistan’s president, Ashraf Ghani. “We’re going to stay until such time as we have a deal, or we have total victory, and they want to make a deal very badly.” He also reiterated his wish to lower US troop levels from around 12,000 or 13,000 to 8,600. Trump’s visit—which included him playing the traditional role of feeding mashed potatoes and turkey to troops—comes at a pivotal moment in his presidency, with the impeachment inquiry moving quickly.

This is excellent news.

I just hope it is for real and not some political ploy to gain favor during the impeachment thing…..

The US and Taliban had several months of negotiations with one another in Doha earlier this year, culminating in an all-but-finished deal, though President Trump withdrew from those talks at the brink of a deal, declaring the process “dead.”

At the time, officials said it was because what was decided didn’t include an immediate ceasefire, though neither the Taliban nor US ceased fire. President Trump is now reporting that the Taliban want to do a ceasefire as part of a deal.

Like I said…..hopefully it is not just a statement to try and change the political discussion and is really an attempt to end our longest war…..our troops and the nation deserve more than an illusion.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

That Foggy Mountain Breakdown–Afghanistan

There is a wealth of opinions on the breakdown of the talks between the US and the Taleban…..all said the common opinion is that Trump was right cancel these talks for it gives the US time to revamp its Afghan strategy…..

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he had called off talks with the Taliban at Camp David. The meeting had probably been arranged to finalise a deal for the start of a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The deal apparently had four main pillars: a Taliban guarantee not to allow foreign fighters to use Afghanistan to launch attacks outside the country; the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces; an intra-Afghan dialogue; and a permanent ceasefire.

The question marks over that plan are the credibility of any Taliban commitments, the exclusion of the Afghan government from the peace talks, and what happens next.

These problems are well known to any observer of Afghanistan and certainly to the U.S. lead negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad. He may well have reached the best deal he could with the Taliban, but that doesn’t mean it was one worth taking. Fortunately, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Trump seem to have a perspective that’s different from the negotiating team’s.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2019/09/11/the_breakdown_of_ustaliban_talks_buys_time_to_reset_the_afghanistan_strategy_114737.html

Was Trump right to cancel these talks?

The new peace agreement thus far, painstakingly negotiated by U.S. envoy Zalmay Khalilzad – a skilled former ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations – was between the U.S. and the Taliban only. The Camp David meeting was supposed to be a turning point, wherein the Afghan government of President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban could come together, echoing former President Bill Clinton’s bringing together of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the government of Israel in 2000, also at Camp David. (That attempt, too, died stillborn.)

The deal on the table reportedly included a U.S. withdrawal of its 14,000 troops, including a down-payment of around 5,000 leaving within a few months after the accord was completed. The Taliban were to provide guarantees that there would be no return to creating “safe havens” for groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (which is rising in prominence within Afghanistan). There was also a provision to free thousands of Taliban prisoners being held by the Afghan government. All of this was to be cemented with a prolonged cease-fire – and it was that portion of the agreement that the Taliban failed to honor, continuing their attacks and killing another U.S. service member last week.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-09-09/trump-was-right-to-cancel-the-taliban-talks

One of the media’s main sticking points is that there was NO Afghan government representation…..but once the US takes it on the lame the Taleban will once again become the government in power in Afghanistan.

Really the only thing to worry about is to take measures to assure the US that there will be no safe haven for terrorists like AQ and ISIS.

The governmental form matters not….for Afghanistan will be Afghanistan.

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Why Camp David?

Closing Thought–09Sep19

There was an attempt to hold secret talks between the US and the Taleban on the possibility of a peace agreement…..and dear Mr. Trump decided to cancel the meeting…

Many months of tough negotiations between US and Taliban officials came to a draft agreement which some analysts believe was going to be formally finalized as a peace deal this weekend. That will not happen.

President Trump took to Twitter on Saturday announcing that he has “called off peace negotiations” with the Taliban, citing anger over one of the Taliban’s car bombings in Kabul last week.

Trump also revealed that he had planned secret talks with both Afghan President Ghani and Taliban leaders at Camp David, but that in the course of his new decision, he had canceled those meetings as well.

It is unclear, then, whether Trump’s saying he “called off” the negotiations just refers to this weekend, or to the entire process. The US State Department was unclear, and referred questions to the White House.

(antiwar.com)

Everybody scrambled to defend the president’s decision……of course they are spin it to the point that they, Taleban, has been killing Americans and to hold such a meeting with a group that [protected the group that attacked on 9/11.

Now there is the reason…….it was a political decision nothing else.

It would have been used against Trump in the upcoming 2020 election….so all the “reasons” were just fluff…the real reason was a electoral decision.

The spin is to cover the fact that the president is a moron for even considering such a meeting just days before any 9/11 remembrances…..these meetings would appear to be a spit in the faces of those that died on 9/11….just think of the ammo he would give to his opponent in 2020….

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“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Afghanistan–Deal Or No Deal?

I have been watching the events in Afghanistan around the possibility of a peace deal between the US and the Taleban……https://lobotero.com/2019/08/27/afghanistan-yes-we-have-a-deal/

After months of back and forth….the news is that there is a deal…..

US negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad has reported that the US and Taliban have a peace deal “in principle” now, and that it is just pending approval from President Trump. The Afghan government has confirmed being given a copy of the draft deal.

The specifics are not all public knowledge yet, but negotiators say that the deal would remove some 5,000 US ground troops from Afghanistan in the first five months, in return for the Taliban agreeing to keep ISIS and al-Qaeda out, and reduce violence.

All previous indications were that the deal was meant to see a full withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan. This raises questions since Trump promised last week that he would “always” have a presence in Afghanistan.

With only mentions of 5,000 leaving, it leaves questions of what will happen to the other 8,000 or so troops. It is unthinkable for the Taliban to have not covered this matter, but so far those facts are not known.

What is known is that some in the White House want to expand the number of CIA on the ground in Afghanistan even as troops leave. Both the CIA and military are expressing concerns about this, since the CIA has embedded with troops in the past. The in-administration debate is further adding to resistance to leaving Afghanistan at all.

(antiwar.com)

We have been close before…..hopefully this time it is closer than in the past…..

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Afghanistan–Yes, We Have A Deal

The US and the Taleban in Afghanistan have been working on a peace deal that would see US troops out of the country…..it has been an up and down process from close no cigar to maybe to…….

It seems the news yesterday was good news indeed……

Sources within Doha say that the most recent round of talks between the US and Taliban have worked out a peace deal for Afghanistan. The plan is to announce it formally in a few days, giving the US time to inform the Afghan government on what’s been decided.

Details aren’t being made public so far, but US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is heading to Kabul to brief the government there, and will subsequently travel to Brussels to inform NATO about what is going on.

Despite the indications this is a done deal, President Trump is still being very coy, saying that as far as he is concerned there is “no timeline” for ending the Afghan War, and that he is “in no rush.”

Trump has been publicly of two minds on Afghanistan for a long time, however, conceding that the war is a waste and should be ended while at the same time saying he’s also perfectly fine with America’s longest war dragging on even longer.

(antiwar.com)

Announcement of pact will be made in a few days.

With the announcement the Taleban had one of their own…..

Taliban commanders anonymously quoted in the press are claiming that their reported peace deal with the US would not require them to stop carrying out attacks on he Afghan government, but would require the US to stop coming to the aid of the Ghani government.

If this was true, it would be very surprising, as all indications were that the peace deal was intended to be followed quickly with a ceasefire across Afghanistan while US troops are withdrawing, and power-sharing talks.

Zalmay Khalilzad, who negotiated the treated, says this is not true, and that the US would defend the Afghan forces even after any peace deal, and that the future would be decided in intra-Afghan negotiations.

(antiwar.com)

So we have a possible peace deal in Afghanistan between the Taleban and the US and nothing much would change….do I have this about right?

As a student of conflict resolution would someone explain to me how this is a success…..

Is this just a way to head off the antiwar rhetoric in the coming election?

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Closing Thought–19Aug19

The news is that the peace deal the US was working on with the Taleban has fallen through and the word is that we are staying for the long run.

But I subscribe to a Neocon hot spot, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and they published an article that I disagree with on all levels…..

Two years ago this month, Zalmay Khalilzad, the distinguished diplomat who has served as America’s ambassador to both Iraq and Afghanistan, praised President Trump for adopting “a realistic position regarding peace talks” with the Taliban, “moving away from President Barack Obama’s pursuit of reconciliation regardless of the deteriorating military situation.”

A year later, Mr. Khalilzad was appointed U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation. Since then, he has adopted an unrealistic position regarding peace talks with the Taliban, moving toward President Obama’s pursuit of reconciliation regardless of the deteriorating military situation.

If I’m wrong about this, I’ll be pleased to eat my words. But the evidence is compelling.

https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2019/08/14/in-afghanistan-no-deal-is-better-than-a-bad-deal/

I disagree.

Any deal is a better deal than we have now.

Our troops do not need some world changing deal….they need to come home and get a rest from the silliness the US has been playing at for the last 15 years.

Stop playing into the hands of the defense industry….care more for the lives of troops than for the profits of corporations.

The word is that Trump wants out of Afghanistan……it will look good on the resume for 2020…..

Donald Trump has met his peace envoy to Afghanistan and top security advisers to discuss progress in the latest round of talks with the Taliban, fuelling speculation that a deal to end America’s longest war might be within reach.

“Many on the opposite side of this 19-year war, and us, are looking to make a deal – if possible!” Trump tweeted after the meeting at his golf club in New Jersey, where the group is believed to have discussed a draft peace plan.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/17/trump-hints-america-close-to-deal-with-taliban-others-question-peace

That was last weekend and we enter a new week…..and we know that Trump changes his mind on a dime…..will we see and end of the longest war?

In closing….50 years ago Jimi Hendrix took to the stage at Woodstock….

“Lego Ergo Scribo”