You may recall, even though it was so very long ago, that before 9/11, the Taliban blew up the Buddhas of Bamiyan and was known to be involved in training jihad terrorists for mass murder plots outside Afghanistan. There were al-Qaeda training camps in Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan. The Taliban has blown up girls’ schools — and shot Malala Yousafzai for daring to advocate that girls be educated. What this odd statement from Eric Schultz signifies is that the Obama Administration is trying to prepare Americans for the return of the Taliban to power — which will show up the absolute futility of all the loss of American blood and treasure in Afghanistan over the last twelve years.
“Taliban not a terrorist group, White House deputy press secretary says,” by Jessica Chasmar, The Washington Times, January 28, 2015:
White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz argued during Wednesday’s briefing that the United States can negotiate prisoner swaps with Taliban members, because the Taliban is not considered a terrorist group.
ABC News reporter John Karl asked the press briefing rookie whether the Jordanian government’s trade with the Islamic State was similar to the United States trading five Taliban members for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
“As you know, this was highly discussed at the time and prisoner swaps are a traditional end-of-conflict interaction that happens,” Mr. Schultz said. “As the war in Afghanistan wound down, we felt like it was the appropriate thing to do. The president’s bedrock commitment as commander in chief is to leave no man or woman behind. That’s the principle he was operating under.”
“Isn’t that what the Jordanians are operating under?” the ABC reporter argued. “The Taliban are still conducting terror attacks, so you can’t really say the war has ended as far as they’re concerned.”
Mr. Schultz explained: “I would also point out that the Taliban is an armed insurgency. [Islamic State] is a terrorist group. So we don’t make concessions to terrorist groups.”
“You don’t think the Taliban’s a terrorist group?” Mr. Karl interjected.
“I don’t think that the Taliban — the Taliban is an armed insurgency,” Mr. Schultz corrected. “This was the winding down of the war in Afghanistan, and that’s why this arrangement was dealt.”