After a successful seven-day truce period, last Saturday, the United States officially signed a peace agreement with the Taliban. While the agreement has conditions to be met in the future, this appears to be the best chance yet for the U.S. to finally extricate itself from the longest war in its history.
The U.S.-Taliban peace deal was signed in the Middle Eastern State of Qatar and calls for the withdrawal of all U.S. and allied troops over the next 14 months, with the Taliban committing to ending all acts of terrorism within Afghanistan.
The agreement also calls for some 5,000 Taliban prisoners currently under the supervision of the Afghan government to be released ahead of talks between Afghan groups scheduled for 10 March in Oslo, Norway.
This last point, however, was contested on Sunday by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who was not invited to the peace agreement signing in Qatar.
Mr. Ghani stated in Kabul that the U.S. was not in a position to instruct his government on how to deal with Taliban prisoners: “The request has been made by the United States for the release of prisoners and it can be part of the negotiations but it cannot be a precondition.”
Mr. Ghani went on to say that any release of prisoners was his government’s decision, not the U.S.
TRENDPOST: On Saturday, President Trump confirmed he would be open to meeting directly with Taliban leaders to make this deal work. While there are serious issues still to be settled to keep the agreement intact, as Gerald Celente has forecast, Mr. Trump will use the end of the long, costly Afghan war as a major campaign issue in his pursuit for re-election.
Also, most notably, there is minimal coverage in the mainstream media or political celebration of the U.S.-Taliban peace deal that will end the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan after 19 years.
Indeed, when America launched the Afghan War in 2001, there was strong patriotic support, but, now, with an end in sight, there are no celebrations of bringing home the troops or admission of the costly, murderous mission’s failure.
