Trump's deal with the Taliban, explained

[mahatmakanejeeves]

The Fix • Analysis

Trump’s deal with the Taliban, explained

By Amber Phillips
Reporter, The Fix
Yesterday at 7:27 p.m. EDT

This has been updated with the latest.

With the withdrawal from Afghanistan turning deadly for U.S. troops, President Biden faces new criticism for a situation that he argues presents him few options.

The deal that President Donald Trump cut last year with the Taliban forced Biden to choose between a withdrawal now or an escalation of the war, Biden said Thursday, as he addressed the nation after at least 13 members of the U.S. military were killed in Kabul.

He choose to withdraw.

“I had only one alternative,” he said, “to send thousands more troops back into Afghanistan to fight a war that we had already won, relative to the reason why we went in the first place.”

When the deal was cut in Doha, Qatar, in February 2020, it wasn’t treated as huge news, because the war itself wasn’t big news. So many people don’t actually know its contents.

{snip}

By Amber Phillips
Amber Phillips analyzes politics for The Washington Post's nonpartisan politics blog and authors The 5-Minute Fix newsletter, a rundown of the day's biggest political news. She was previously the one-woman D.C. bureau for the Las Vegas Sun and has reported from as far away as Taiwan. Twitter https://twitter.com/byamberphillips

[dweller]

1. And it should be posed as thus : TFG surrendered

Overall, it was a pretty good deal for the Taliban, critics said. “Trump all but assured the future course of events would reflect the Taliban’s interests far more than the United States,” Miller writes. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s second national security adviser, has recently called it “a surrender agreement with the Taliban.” Another member of Trump’s National Security Council said it was “a very weak agreement.”

✌🏻

[empedocles]

2. traitortrump's 'agreement with the taliban got almost nothing - for the U.S. . . .

[SarcasticSatyr]

5. And worse, a lot of what the Taliban agreed to, they went back on .....

.... I almost have more respect for Biden now, knowing what a shitty situation TFG left him with.

[czarjak]

3. Art of the Chaos Candidate. See, a Bush can be right eventually.

[underpants]

4. Great read. Thanks.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. For this thread

Link to tweet