Taliban, U.S. deal sets the stage for troop withdrawal
DOHA, QATAR >> The United States signed a deal with the Taliban on Saturday that sets the stage to end America’s longest war — the nearly two-decade-old conflict in Afghanistan that began after the Sept. 11 attacks, killed tens of thousands of people, vexed three White House administrations and left mistrust and uncertainty on all sides.
The agreement lays out a timetable for the final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, the impoverished Central Asian country once unfamiliar to many Americans that now symbolizes endless conflict, foreign entanglements and an incubator of terrorist plots.
The war in Afghanistan in some ways echoes the American experience in Vietnam. In both, a superpower bet heavily on brute strength and the lives of its young, then walked away with seemingly little to show. American efforts to instill a democratic system in the country, and to improve opportunities for women and minorities, are at risk if the Taliban, which banned girls from schools and women from public life, become dominant again. The agreement signed in Doha, Qatar, which followed more than a year of stop-and-start negotiations and conspicuously excluded the American-backed Afghanistan government, is not a final peace deal, is filled with ambiguity and still could unravel.
But it is seen as a step toward negotiating a more sweeping agreement that some hope could eventually end the insurgency of the Taliban, the militant movement that once ruled Afghanistan under a severe Islamic code.
The war cost $2 trillion and took the lives of more than 3,500 American and coalition troops and tens of thousands of Afghans since the U.S. invasion in aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, which were plotted by al-qaida leaders under the protection of the Taliban.
The withdrawal of U.S. troops — about 12,000 are still in Afghanistan — is dependent on the Taliban’s fulfillment of major commitments that have been obstacles for years, including its severance of ties with international terrorist groups such as al-qaida.
The agreement also hinges on more difficult negotiations to come between the Taliban and the Afghan government over the country’s future. Officials hope those talks will produce a power-sharing arrangement and lasting cease-fire, but both ideas have been anathema to the Taliban in the past.
“I really believe the Taliban wants to do something to show that we’re not all wasting time,” President Donald Trump said in Washington hours after the agreement had been signed. “If bad things happen, we’ll go back.”
In rambling remarks on Afghanistan at a news conference on the coronavirus epidemic, Trump also seemed to suggest that the Taliban might be the U.S.’ newfound allies.
“I’ll be meeting personally with Taliban leaders in the not-too-distant future and will be very much hoping that they will be doing what they say,” the president said. “They will be killing terrorists. They will be killing some very bad people. They will keep that fight going.”
The war has gone on so long — the first allied warplane and cruise missiles struck Oct. 7, 2001, and American boots hit the ground in numbers Oct. 19 — that many young Afghan soldiers and their coalition partners have no memory of its onset.
Retaliation against alqaida and its allies among the Taliban was the catalyst that drove the U.S. invasion. But it has been a dawning sense of futility, perhaps best demonstrated in the U.S.’ acceptance of relatively small concessions from Taliban in the agreement, that has driven efforts of successive administrations to find a way out.
Even in the description of al-qaida in the agreement, the Taliban refused to accept the word “terrorist.” The language focuses on the Taliban’s commitment to prevent future attacks rather than any regrets over the past.
From the start of the talks, late in 2018, Afghan officials were troubled that the Taliban had blocked them from participating. They worried that Trump would abruptly withdraw troops without securing conditions they saw as crucial, including a reduction in violence and a Taliban promise to negotiate in good faith with the government. The chief American envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, signed on behalf of the United States. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a current Taliban deputy and a figure from the original Taliban government, signed for the Taliban.
The two men shook hands as the room erupted in cheers.
Some Taliban members in attendance chanted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” a cry of victory.
More than 1,200 miles away during the signing, another senior American official, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, was with Afghan officials in Kabul to ease the Afghan government’s concerns. Joined by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, they issued a declaration asserting the United States’ commitment to helping sustain the Afghan military.