US Joint Chiefs chairman meets with Taliban on peace talks

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By ROBERT BURNS

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The top U.S. general held unannounced talks with Taliban peace negotiators in the Persian Gulf to urge a reduction in violence across Afghanistan, even as senior American officials in Kabul warned that stepped-up Taliban attacks endanger the militant group’s nascent peace negotiations with the Afghan government.

Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met for about two hours with Taliban negotiators in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday and flew Wednesday to Kabul to discuss the peace process with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Although Milley reported no breakthrough, his Taliban meetings represent a remarkable milestone — America’s top general coming face-to-face with representatives of the group that ruled Afghanistan until it was ousted 19 years ago this month in the early stages of what became America’s longest war. Milley served three tours of duty in Afghanistan, the first in 2003 and the last in 2013-14.

Milley’s meetings came amid a new drawdown of U.S. troops, although under current U.S. policy a complete pullout hinges on the Taliban reducing attacks nationwide.



Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, left, talks with Gen. Scott Miller, the commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020 at Miller’s military headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. The top U.S. military officer has held an unannounced meeting with Taliban peace negotiators to push for a reduction in violence in Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Robert Burns)


Read more: https://apnews.com/article/peace-process-qatar-doha-army-afghanistan-5aa10724bbc4df823fd19ad2301837df

[Crazyleftie]

1. Unfortunately negotiating with the Taloban is a lost cause

They may reach an 'Agreement" but the violence will continue. It is all just a show, as were all previous negotiations. We are engaged in a civil religious war for which there is no good outcome. Religious fanatics on one side and a corrupt government on the other.
As it is just another failed state, let's just leave; we can't save every country that has internal problems with our army. It's a dead end.

[maxsolomon]

2. Why would they stop their daily bombings?

There are no consequences coming from either the Afghani Govt or Coalition Forces.

Back to the Dark Ages.

[marble falls]

3. Don't you remember the total asskicking they gave the bear and they were retreating as fast ...

... as they could out of Afghanistan.

Or what Kipling said about the Afghans when they drove Great Britain out?


When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains, and the women come out to cut up what remains, jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains and go to your gawd like a soldier.

Rudyard Kipling

They stopped Alexander the Great.

[maxsolomon]

4. Yes I remember all that.

Somehow, it doesn't make ceding the nation back to vicious theocratic terrorists more comforting to me. While we've been negotiating our withdrawal, they've been continuing their terror campaign unfettered.

Not all Afghanis are Pashtuns or Wahhabist fanatics. Some would like to live with some measure of civil society. They won't get to.