Afghanistan Times
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The Afghan government and the Taliban group have opened too much hype against each other and the historic negotiations aimed at ending the bloody 19-year war are in danger of collapse. Taliban attacks are killing scores of Afghans every week, reciprocally, dozens of Taliban fighters were killed in counterattacks by the Afghan security forces, sapping a fragile trust between the two sides. Unfortunately, Afghan and Taliban negotiators remain deadlocked at the table of talks, failing even to agree on a framework and agenda for the talks. In a strange twist of events surrounding the peace talks, the Taliban are pushing for the release of more prisoners—a strange demand that could complicate the fragile yet rejuvenated peace process. Additionally, the US military and the Taliban are engaged in a growing war of words over the terms of a deal to withdrawal all foreign troops from Afghanistan. With the US and NATO forces on the verge of withdrawal before a peace settlement between Afghan government and Taliban is finalized, a civil war is very likely to breakout. Obviously, foreign troops exit with no clearly defined strategy will have negative consequences. History has proven time and again that almost any military which came to Afghanistan left without an exit strategy unwillingly triggered the country into the edge of anarchy and crisis. The US and its allies came to Afghanistan with extravagant commitments, but now after 19-year of a counterproductive war, they are leaving with almost no core interests achieved. Time will judge whether the international community, especially, the U.S committed mistakes in the first place by coming to Afghanistan. Surely, the US will leave a questionable legacy behind if it leaves the country in rush. Undoubtedly, it’s not a good war for the US anymore, and the mission lost the popularity it had once. But many innocent Afghan’s lives were lost. The insurgent groups are more emboldened now and the government in Kabul already enmeshed in chaos. Taliban have not renounced violence yet nor did they fully comply with the rules of their peace agreement with the US. Moreover, spoiler groups are making days and nights to derail the talks and get the Taliban to avoid making a compromise rather encourage them to engage in tough talks as once foreign forces fully withdraw they could overtake the power completely—a dangerous assumption. Still there is hope that the Afghan and Taliban peace negotiators finally reach a settlement and lead Afghanistan to the path of peace, prosperity and vanish away the level of violence and uncertainties and to create a sense of hope to the war-hit Afghan people.
