It’s always a great negotiation position when the other party knows you have no choice and want the deal badly.
This is like negotiating for a car when the salesman knows you are on foot and can’t get credit anywhere else.
If they aren’t coming to you with tears in their eyes begging to negotiate, they are gonna put the big britches on you... big time.
Trump is right we need to get out of Afghanistan but the negotiations need to have some US muscle to get their attention.
We know which areas are Taliban controlled and where they have bases. Our Air Force should bomb and Hellfire missile them to rocks and dust. The fields of poppies they use for opium sales should be sprayed with long-lasting weed killer. If we fear their ground to air defenses, we should have some cheap drones fly first and bomb any areas that Taliban fire comes from before our attacks and weed spraying. Yes there may be some innocents killed but we have accurate weapons to make the numbers small.
If we withdraw, it goes back to the Afghans themselves. The Talibs will take control of the country, unless there is sufficient desire among the tribes to keep them out of power.
Not all afghans want to live under Talib rule. The question is, are there enough of them? So far, considering the number of attacks on US people by supposedly “friendly” afghan soldiers, it looks like no.
We could take this back to a special forces war, which it seems it almost is anyway, where we align ourselves with any non-talib warlords and support them, and let them do the fighting. Maybe this is where Trump wants to go, but I’m not sure of that. Or maybe he is ready to simply let the Talibs have it, and let the chips fall where they may.
Taliban should be treated like ISIS.
Eradicate.
Should have been done 18 years ago.
This carries the State Department stench. Why negotiate? Just arm the Northern Alliance with our “leftovers” and leave.
What happened to the Northern Alliance?
NO, DAMMIT!!!
Too many good men have been lost there!
We will become just one more, with Alexander, the Romans, the British, the Russians ...
NO, nuke the mofos and let them rebuild themaelves!!
I trust Trump to get the best deal he can on the way out.
But it IS time to just leave, staying does America no good and continues to waste our money and the blood of our finest men.
breaking-
US Special Op. Forces & US trained Afghan commandos got into a verbal dispute with each other right before they were ready to engage Taliban in Nangarhar Province.
Between 6-18 US Special Op. Forces r said to have been eliminated by Afghan forces, their allies.
The Constitution of Afghanistan is explicitly Islamic. That is all you need to know, to know Americans should not be defending it.
At least 4 American Spec. Ops killed in clash in my post #15.
What a f-ing typical waste. This country never learns. Go to your regional VA and look at those soldiers and think “peace talks”. America had the upper hand after 9/11 then we went “religion of peace” BS and eventually went to go fight another “war” essentially inexplicably opening another front sucking vast resources and losing political credit.
My company is run by Afganis and they say there’s this new young buck that’s taking over
he’s from the northern alliance they said the Talban is totally evil and this guy is taking on the corrupt government and everything
there’s videos of them out there but he’s giving women’s rights and everything else
It’s pretty swift and harsh justice but everybody’s armed and they’re daring the Taliban are any of these other idiots to come in here and try to cause trouble
Ever since “limited war” has been included in US strategy, we have never won a war.
Probably the same guy who espoused “common core” and “See-Say” came up with that idea.
I have a military solution. Roll ‘em up and bring it home.