San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
TALIBAN, U.S. SIGN ACCORD AIMED TO END WAR
Agreement lays out timing for withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan
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 signing of the agreement 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 and could still 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 the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, which were plotted by alqaeda 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-qaeda.
The agreement signed Saturday 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.
“The future of Afghanistan is for Afghans to determine,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Doha for the ceremony. “The U.s.-taliban deal creates the conditions for Afghans to do just that.”
The Trump administration has framed the deal as the long-awaited promise made to war-weary Americans, for whom the Afghan war has defined a generation of loss and trauma but has yielded no victory.
At the height of the war, more than 100,000 U.S. troops occupied Afghanistan, as did tens of thousands from about 40 nations in the U.s.-led NATO coalition.
The war has gone on so long — the first allied warplane and cruise missiles struck on Oct. 7, 2001, and American boots hit the ground in numbers on Oct. 19 — that many young Afghan soldiers and their coalition partners have no memory of its onset.
“If the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home,” President Donald Trump said on Friday before the signing of the deal.
“These commitments represent an important step to a lasting peace in a new Afghanistan, free from alqaeda, ISIS, and any other terrorist group that would seek to bring us harm.”
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 from Afghanistan without securing any of the 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 shook hands as the room erupted in cheers.
During the signing, another senior American official, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, was with Afghan officials in Kabul. They issued a joint declaration asserting the United States’ commitment to continue funding and supporting the Afghan military. And Esper emphasized that if the Taliban did not honor their pledges, “the United States would not hesitate to nullify the agreement.”
Afghan officials expressed cautious hope. At the Kabul meeting, President Ashraf Ghani called for a moment of silence for those killed in the past 18 years and said, “Today can be a day of overcoming the past.”
The best-case prospect laid out by the deal signed on Saturday could go far beyond America’s disengagement. It raised the hope of ending a conflict that began more than 20 years before the U.S. invasion, when the Soviet Union’s forces invaded the country and the United States began supporting the guerrilla resistance against them.
But behind the hope lies a web of contradictions.
The United States, which struggled to help secure better rights for women and minorities and instill a democratic system and institutions in Afghanistan, has struck a deal with an insurgency that has never renounced its desire for a government and justice system rooted in a severe interpretation of Islam.
Although the Taliban get their primary wish granted by this agreement — the withdrawal of U.S. troops — they have made no firm commitments to protect civil rights for people they brutally repressed when in power.
Among the Taliban, the reality of bringing the world’s strongest military power to the point of withdrawal has widely been seen as a victory.
“This is the hotel that tomorrow will turn into a historic hotel,” the Taliban’s multimedia chief posted on Twitter on Friday with a picture of the Sheraton in Doha, site of the signing. “From here, the defeat of the arrogance of the White House in the face of the white turban will be announced.”
But at the signing ceremony, Pompeo warned the Taliban to moderate their celebration. “I know there will be a temptation to declare victory,” he said. “But victory for Afghans can only be achieved if they can live in peace and prosper.”
Even some Afghan soldiers came to see U.S. troops as invaders, with some turning their guns on their American and NATO partners. More than 150 American and NATO troops have been killed in such “greenon-blue” attacks, including two U.S. service members gunned down in February.
The deal provides a conditional schedule for the withdrawal of the remaining American troops. In the first phase, about 5,000 are to leave Afghanistan in 135 days. The withdrawal of the rest, expected to be completed within 14 months, will depend on the Taliban keeping its end of the bargain.
The insurgents have pledged to keep international terrorist networks such as al-qaeda from using Afghanistan as a base for attacks.
But at the same time, a dominant faction of the Taliban, the Haqqani network, is still listed as a terrorist organization for waging a campaign of suicide bombings in Afghan cities. The network’s leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the Taliban’s deputy leader and military commander.
The United States committed to working to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by the Afghan government and 1,000 from the Afghan side by March 10, before the Afghan sides are expected to sit down for direct negotiations. The United States will also review sanctions it has imposed on Taliban members and start diplomatic efforts with the United Nations to remove the penalties.
A more durable ceasefire was not an explicit part of the U.s.-taliban deal. That is to come in the direct talks between Afghan officials and the insurgency, officials said.
While American diplomats had pushed for a cease-fire, they settled for what they called a “reduction in violence” and tested it over seven days before the signing. Officials said attacks had dropped by as much as 80 percent during that period. The hope was that the reduction could extend into the next phase, until the two Afghan sides could agree to a more comprehensive cease-fire.