Posted on 08/18/2021 3:03:49 AM PDT by EBH
In 2001, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban, tried to arrange the group’s surrender to the new U.S.-backed Afghan government. It was rejected. He spent most of the past decade under arrest in Pakistan.
He tried again to negotiate a settlement midway into the conflict, engaging in secret contacts with Mr. Karzai’s government before he was captured by U.S. and Pakistani agents in early 2010.
For years after his arrest, Mr. Karzai—who belongs to the same influential branch of the Pashtun Durrani tribe as Mullah Baradar—pressed Pakistan to free the Taliban leader in the hopes that his release could help jump-start peace talks with the insurgent group.
It was only in 2018, in response to U.S. pressure, that Mullah Baradar was finally released by Pakistan. Early doubts over his authority, and his health after years under arrest, lifted quickly.
He returns to power 20 years later after the U.S. lobbied for his release when the Trump administration launched talks with the Taliban. At the helm of the group’s political office in Doha, its de facto embassy, Mullah Baradar led talks with the U.S. that culminated in a deal to end America’s engagement in the 20-year war.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Revealed in this editorial is a timeline in which we could very well have withdrawn over the decades under several Presidents. Baradar, Taliban leader, attempted to surrender several times.
I can understand why Trump would negotiate with Baradar to get out. Who else was he to negotiate with ?
bump
Thanks for the bump
A Taliban Leader Emerges
Remember the trade Obama made one army guy for four Teliban?.
Now that guy is their chief negotiator with Biden, can't make this stuff up.
Bingo
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