Mattis in Kabul: We 'look toward a victory in Afghanistan - not a military victory'

[karynnj]

12. No they don't

Before 2001, the Taliban was 100% in charge. The negotiations are to reconcile them with the other factions in Afghanistan. This is an Afghan lad effort that has international support. Given past attempts, it may be more likely to fail than to succeed. If it succeeds, the main credit should go to the two men sharing power in Afghanistan - Ghani and Abdullah. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/opinion/peace-taliban.html

There are many - including General McCrsytal, who have admitted that we should have taken an easy victory with the very limited goal of elimininating their hosting of Al Quaeda in 2001/2002 and left. Unsaid was that that could have left the Taliban in control. As it was, we entered a war of choice in Iraq and ended up with many countries destabalized -- the very situation where non state terrorist can set up and attack without concern that the host country will restrain them.

The US and the coalition has listed many things like the fact that women are less repressed and girls can go to schools. Only time will tell, if the peace talks succeed, whether these gains will continue. If they do, they will be the gains of all the costs in lives and treasure of the US and the coalition. Note that either of these potential gains (peace or civil rights) are close to sure things.

There is no a lot of glory to be had here for the US.