US, Taliban Sign Deal Aimed at Ending War in Afghanistan.
The United States signed a peace agreement with Taliban militants on Saturday aimed at bringing an end to 18-year-old bloodshed in Afghanistan and allowing US troops to return home from America’s longest war.
Under the agreement, the US would draw its forces down to 8,600 from 13,000 in the next three to four months, with the remaining US forces withdrawing in 14 months. The complete pullout, however, would depend on the Taliban meeting their commitments to prevent terrorism.
President George W. Bush ordered the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Some US troops currently serving there had not yet been born when the World Trade Centre collapsed on that crisp, sunny morning that changed how Americans see the world.
It only took a few months to topple the Taliban and send Osama bin Laden and top al-Qaida militants scrambling across the border into Pakistan, but the war dragged on for years as the United States tried establish a stable, functioning state in one of the least developed countries in the world. The Taliban regrouped, and currently hold sway over half the country.
The US spent more than $750 billion, and on all sides the war cost tens of thousands of lives lost, permanently scarred and indelibly interrupted. But the conflict was also frequently ignored by US politicians and the American public.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo attended the ceremony in Qatar, where the Taliban have a political office, but did not sign the agreement. Instead, it was signed by US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
The Taliban harboured bin Laden and his al-Qaida network as they plotted, and then celebrated, the hijackings of four airliners that were crashed into lower Manhattan, the Pentagon and a field in western Pennsylvania, killing almost 3,000 people.
Addressing reporters after the signing ceremony, Pompeo said the US is “realistic” about the peace deal it signed, but is “seizing the best opportunity for peace in a generation.”
He said he was still angry about the September 11, 2001 attacks and that the US would not ”squander” what its soldiers “have won through blood, sweat and tears.” He said the US would do whatever is necessary for its security if the Taliban do not comply with the agreement.
Pompeo had privately told a conference of US ambassadors at the State Department this week that he was going only because President Donald Trump had insisted on his participation, according to two people present.
Dozens of Taliban members had earlier held a small victory march in Qatar in which they waved the militant group’s white flags, according to a video shared on Taliban websites.
“Today is the day of victory, which has come with the help of Allah,” said Abbas Stanikzai, one of the Taliban’s lead negotiators, who joined the march.
Trump has repeatedly promised to get the US out of its “endless wars” in the Middle East, and the withdrawal of troops could provide a boost as he seeks re-election in a nation weary of involvement in distant conflicts.
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