Trump administration to betray Afghan government, reveals TheArticle

Today TheArticle reveals that the Trump administration is secretly preparing to agree a peace deal with the Taliban. It would allow American forces to pull out of Afghanistan, in return for

a promise that the country would no longer be a base for Islamist terrorism.

In a world exclusive, co-written by Lynne O’Donnell, the former head of the Associated Press bureau in Kabul, and Mirwais Khan in Quetta, Taliban leaders have spoken for the first time about

how they see the endgame of the 17-year conflict, in which the US has been embroiled for longer than the Vietnam War. The peace process began last year when President Trump dispatched an

envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad (known as “Zal”), to put out feelers to the Taliban insurgents, hitherto shunned by the US and other Western powers.

By lifting the lid on the highly secretive talks, from which the elected Afghan government of President Ghani has been excluded, our writers reveal the extent of the latter’s betrayal by

Washington. Taliban ministers are likely to take key security roles in any future regime, while human rights, democracy and women’s equality could be sacrificed on the altar of realpolitik.

The Taliban have always refused to talk to the elected government, which they regard as a puppet regime. Despite assurances that they will allow the Afghan people to choose their government,

Taliban ideology remains totally opposed to Western civilisation, including democracy.

About half of Afghanistan is currently controlled by the Taliban, who use bases in Pakistan where they are unofficially protected by Pakistani military and intelligence, who operate

independently of the government of President Imran Khan. The Trump administration has evidently decided to cut its losses, extricate some 8,000 US troops (plus another 9,000 Nato personnel)

and declare peace, abandoning the Ghani regime and the Afghan people to their fate.

Our story also reveals that Afghan officials are appalled by the delegitimisation of a government that has been sustained by a Nato mission led by the US. The Afghan war is estimated to have

cost the US alone more than $1 trillion.

Why is Donald Trump so eager to end US involvement? It isn’t only a question of the cost. The President is focused on his re-election campaign and the planned withdrawal would dovetail

nicely with the US election timetable.

No less important to Trump is the lure of the Nobel Peace Prize. Already nominated by his close ally, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Trump hopes to earn his reward by ending three

long-standing conflicts: Korea, Israel-Palestine and Afghanistan. Last week he failed to achieve a breakthrough in talks with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. He has also made little

progress in the Middle East peace process, where Palestinian leaders have snubbed his proposals.

So Trump’s hopes of becoming a Nobel laureate — an accolade given to just four US Presidents, most recently Barack Obama — rest on ending the war in Afghanistan, an achievement that eluded

his two predecessors. He is running out of time; hence the decision to break the deadlock by marginalising the Afghan government and talking directly to the Taliban.

Trump may believe that as a Nobel laureate, he would guarantee his own immunity from impeachment. It is hard to imagine a president who had been awarded Nobel Peace Prize being subsequently

forced to resign, like Richard Nixon, or even prosecuted.

But if the stakes are high for Donald Trump, they are even higher for the Afghan people. Now that Lynne O’Donnell and Mirwais Khan have revealed what has been going on behind closed doors in

their exclusive for TheArticle, the world will be able to decide whether the future of Afghanistan can safely be left in the hands of the same fanatics whose regime was overthrown some 17

years ago. Last time it was only after the 9/11 attacks that the West intervened. If Afghanistan reverts to Taliban rule, we will only have ourselves to blame when a new exodus of refugees

heads towards Europe.

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