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Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Pompeo: “If the Taliban don’t behave, we’re not going to reduce our support for the Afghan security forces”

Sep 9, 2019 9:00 am By Robert Spencer

“If the Taliban don’t behave, if they don’t deliver on the commitments that they’ve made to us now for weeks, and in some cases months, the president is not going to reduce the pressure, we’re not going to reduce our support for the Afghan security forces that have fought so hard there in Afghanistan.”

Here’s a news flash: the Taliban aren’t going to “behave.” Even if they decide to give the appearance of “behaving,” it will be after the manner of the “Palestinians”: an insincere commitment to peace talks that they are only participating in so as to win concessions from the Afghan government and Trump that they couldn’t win on the battlefield. This entire comic opera of negotiations with the Taliban never would have taken place if there had been a clear understanding of the nature, motives, and goals of the Taliban’s jihad, but there isn’t, because that would lead to the airing of uncomfortable facts about Islam, and while this administration isn’t as committed to fantasy Islam as the last one, it still has a long way to go to reach a realistic approach.

Peace talks with the Taliban are always going to be fruitless, because the Taliban are never going to give up their religious commitments to jihad for the sake of Allah, and to Sharia as the only legitimate form of government. If negotiations will help them further their jihad, they will participate in them; if not, not.

“We’re not just going to withdraw because there’s a timeline.”

All right. So under what circumstances are we going to withdraw? When there are no more jihadis in Afghanistan, or when they’re a tiny, insignificant force? Our current rules of engagement don’t even allow for that outcome to become a possibility. What we need to do is get out now, a withdrawal that is long, long overdue, and focus on containing the jihadis of Afghanistan so that they cannot pursue their jihad outside of that country. Afghanistan is not going to become a Western-style secular republic as long as Islam continues to exist, and Islam doesn’t show any signs of going away.

To be sure, Trump is in a difficult position. All his Democrat opponents want to do is destroy him; they don’t care about anything else. So as long as he keeps American troops in Afghanistan, they will carp about “forever wars.” But if he withdraws our troops from Afghanistan, the establishment media will trumpet every gain the Taliban make after we’re gone, and scream that Trump has betrayed our gallant Afghan allies in the Ghani government.

The President needs to remember his maxim of “America First,” and use that to guide him in what to do next.

“Afghan peace talks dead, U.S. to keep pressure on Taliban: Pompeo,” by Valerie Volcovici and Doina Chiacu, Reuters, September 9, 2019:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Talks on bringing peace to Afghanistan are on hold and the United States will keep pressuring Taliban militants for significant commitments while providing military support to Afghan troops, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday.

U.S. President Donald Trump unexpectedly announced on Saturday that he had canceled peace talks with the Taliban’s “major leaders” at the Camp David, Maryland, presidential compound after the group claimed responsibility for a Kabul attack last week that killed a U.S. soldier and 11 other people.

The United States has recalled U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad to Washington to chart the path forward, Pompeo said in appearances on Sunday news shows. Asked on “Fox News Sunday” whether Afghan talks were dead, Pompeo said, “For the time being they are.”

U.S. diplomats have been talking with Taliban representatives for months about a plan to withdraw thousands of American troops in exchange for security guarantees by the Taliban.

U.S. and Taliban negotiators struck a draft peace deal last week that could have led to a drawdown in U.S. troops from America’s longest war, one of Trump’s foreign policy objectives.

Asked about the Camp David meeting scheduled for Sunday, Pompeo said Trump decided to get personally involved to get the agreement to the finish line.

“President Trump ultimately made the decision,” Pompeo told Fox. “He said, ‘I want to talk to (President) Ashraf Ghani. I want to talk to these Taliban negotiators. I want to look them in the eye. I want to see if we can get to the final outcome we needed.’”

After news emerged of the Camp David scenario, Trump was criticized for having planned to host on U.S. soil a militant group that has killed U.S. troops and sheltered al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

“Never should leaders of a terrorist organization that hasn’t renounced 9/11 and continues in evil be allowed in our great country. NEVER. Full stop,” U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger, like Trump a Republican, said on Twitter on Saturday.

Americans will on Wednesday mark the 18th anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Taliban fighters, who now control more territory than at any time since 2001, launched fresh assaults over the past week, including a suicide attack in Kabul on Thursday that took the life of U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Elis A. Barreto Ortiz, 34, from Puerto Rico, bringing the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 16….

“If the Taliban don’t behave, if they don’t deliver on the commitments that they’ve made to us now for weeks, and in some cases months, the president is not going to reduce the pressure, we’re not going to reduce our support for the Afghan security forces that have fought so hard there in Afghanistan,” Pompeo said in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.”

“We’re not just going to withdraw because there’s a timeline,” he said.

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Filed Under: Afghanistan, Donald Trump, Featured Tagged With: Mike Pompeo


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Comments

  1. Dave Quilty says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 9:07 am

    In order to save the country we need to destroy the country, and thats not going to happen. Declare victory and leave. How can you ask someone to be the last one to die for a mistake? Some of this is starting to sound familiar…

    • Savvy Kafir says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 5:30 pm

      Agreed. Any interaction the U.S. has with Afghanistan should be carried out by cruise missiles or AC-130 gunships.

    • James Pierce says

      Sep 10, 2019 at 6:51 pm

      I thought we kicked the Taliban into the trash heap of history almost 20 years ago. Why are they back in charge of anything again?

  2. ARTHUR says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 9:52 am

    The “Al-Qaeda” attack on 11 September 2001? You mean when they imploded Building Number Seven around 5:30 pm that day? Anyone remember who gave them the order to pull it? It takes several days to set explosives in a building of that size in order to implode it in a controlled demolition like that. But yeah; Al-Qaeda did it all. It’s Columbia’s Federal District that doesn’t like the Taliban because they destroy the poppy fields that produce the heroin for the major Pharmaceutical Conglomerates. Who will protect those poppy fields in Afghanistan for the Military Industrial Complex then? Maybe someone could ask Pompeo that question. Then ask Poppy Bush junior. Because it would be a more realistic proposition then getting the Taliban to behave and renounce something some other group of criminals did.

    • Wellington says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 11:52 am

      Yes, al-Qaeda did it all on that very dark day in American history but you are too consumed with conspiracy theories (including maligning pharmaceutical companies whose products save untold thousands of lives every year) to see this. BTW, as many engineers have said, what occurred on 9/11 was so unique because we don’t have other examples of giant planes running into skyscrapers and thus it is difficult to analogize to similar events for comparative purposes. The National Institute of Standards and Technology in 2005 published its findings on the WTC collapses and in said report it stated “the severity of the attacks was beyond anything experienced in buildings in the past.” Also in 2005 Popular Mechanics published an article later turned into a book that refutes 9/11 Truthers, including what happened with Building Number 7. The “controlled demolition” conspiracy has been refuted many times but when one lives in conspiracy world, facts are optional.

      The Taliban will never let go of their stupid beliefs. Rather like conspiracy nuts, for instance you.

      • Jule Bacal says

        Sep 10, 2019 at 3:38 am

        I don’t understand….we could not even get rid of ISIL but Russia did & Sunni rebels too. Why can’t we do to Afghanistan whatever Russia did to ISIL. Even negotiate a partnership with them for a seat at G* since they WILL be in oil power anyway. Yes, Syria is nearly flattened and will take years and years to rebuild but maybe that is just what Afghanistan needs….just to start all over & getting someleaders to purge the Qur’an of all the man made Warlord rubbish. Or is there some reason some people Want this war to go on….is someone getting something out of it? Not to start any more ‘conspiracies but I just cannot make sense of it or the way we have been incapable but spent tons of money on construction of things never even used.The only good thing we ever did was drop that humongous bomb on their tunnels once.

        • gravenimage says

          Sep 10, 2019 at 1:22 pm

          Jule Bacal wrote:

          I don’t understand….we could not even get rid of ISIL but Russia did & Sunni rebels too.
          …………………..

          Russia just bowed to their demands. Chechnya is now a Shari’ah state under Muslim strong man Kadyrov. This is no solution.

        • gravenimage says

          Sep 11, 2019 at 9:32 pm

          As for the Islamic State, it was largely destroyed by the Americans.

    • RonaldB says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 12:47 pm

      For me, a critical assertion was that the debris of the buildings were never tested for thermite, a military-grade explosive that would account for the metal that was hot enough to melt the metal that airline fuel couldn’t achieve. The use of thermite is necessary to sustain the implosion theories.

      Someone I respect on line said that in fact, the debris were tested for thermite, and everything else, with negative results. If this is true, the implosion theories kind of…collapse.

      I’m always willing to listen to a reasonable argument, but I always try to draw it down to a verifiable proposition. If you have evidence there was thermite, or that there was no testing for thermite, present it here.

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 7:23 pm

      It seems that ARTHUR is another witless “Truther” who does not believe in Jihad. Does he think that all 35.000 Jihad terror attacks were pulled off by the ‘filthy Infidels’ in order to make Islam look bad, as well?

      And that he has no problem with the vicious genocidal Taliban, who ran the worst Islamic state in modern times until ISIS proved you could be even worse is just sickening. His idea that the Taliban are virtuous anti-drug crusaders is just grotesque.

      • Debi Brand says

        Sep 10, 2019 at 1:19 pm

        “…all 35.000 Jihad terror attacks were pulled off by the ‘filthy Infidels’ in order to make Islam look bad,”

        Now we’re talking sense…

        Spencer wrote, “Here’s a news flash: the Taliban aren’t going to ‘behave.’”

        Indeed – Spencer, the “Revelator.”

        In the alleged “Peace talks” with the Taliban — whose deeds we have a problem with are, as Spencer stated, deeds they produce in exercising the tenets of their “religion” — what are we going to ask the Taliban to do, stop practicing Islam?

        As they say, “Rots of ruck with that…”

    • ARTHUR says

      Sep 11, 2019 at 9:48 am

      Truther and Conspiracy Theorist are what the cultists who’ve been taught whenever their false paradigm is challenged to us such ‘thought terminating cliches’ they’ve been programmed to use. But this is why there’s been a necessity for the Global Collectivist Death Cults alliance with the theo-political death cult since AD 622.

      But we don’t expect useful idiots to see or acknowledge irrefutable facts anyone else can look up on the worldwide web.

      Building No. 7 imploded in on itself just over seven hours after the two towers were similarly imploded in what can only be described as a controlled demolition. Any large building liking Building No. 7 that has ever been destroyed by a controlled demolition takes several days to rig. This is irrefutable fact. Look it up for yourselves. We also know the tower floors were collapsed using steel cutting devices because there’s actual video evidence that shows it.

      There are eyewitnesses of rivers of molten metal under the ruins but hey let’s not call any of this a reasonable argument. You should obey your programming given to you by qualified officials who wrote the 9/11 Commission Report. Obey and believe it just like you did the Warren Report of 1963 that Allen Dulles, the former Director of Central Intelligence that JFK removed before his vow to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces helped write. Just like you’re to believe in and obey the official “settled science” of global warming or you’ll get labeled a “climate denier”.

      Heroin cultivation in the fields of Afghanistan increased to obscene levels after the US and her allies began guarding those fields and even helping transport the product. All of this is irrefutable fact too. Look it up for yourselves. Around the same time heroin deaths began skyrocketing in the US.

      Or join the useful idiot brigade who have to write slanderous lies to dehumanize and defame anyone who doesn’t go along with their official false narratives. ARTHUR didn’t write anything to suggest he doesn’t believe in ongoing forever jihad going on since AD 622. ARTHUR is merely pointing out the complicity to murder by a certain criminal cabal in our own government just like the President of the United States of America has been doing since 2016. None of this has been refuted. It is irrefutable.

      • gravenimage says

        Sep 11, 2019 at 10:00 pm

        ARTHUR wrote:

        Truther and Conspiracy Theorist are what the cultists who’ve been taught whenever their false paradigm is challenged to us such ‘thought terminating cliches’ they’ve been programmed to use. But this is why there’s been a necessity for the Global Collectivist Death Cults alliance with the theo-political death cult since AD 622.
        ……………………

        ARTHUR’s pretending that Anti-Jihadists acknowledging that 9/11 was Jihad is somehow pro-Jihad is just bizarre.

        More:

        But we don’t expect useful idiots to see or acknowledge irrefutable facts anyone else can look up on the worldwide web.

        Building No. 7 imploded in on itself just over seven hours after the two towers were similarly imploded in what can only be described as a controlled demolition. Any large building liking Building No. 7 that has ever been destroyed by a controlled demolition takes several days to rig. This is irrefutable fact. Look it up for yourselves. We also know the tower floors were collapsed using steel cutting devices because there’s actual video evidence that shows it.
        ……………………

        Popular Mechanics debunked all of this nonsense not long after 9/11.

        How *dare* we think that flying fully fueled airplanes into tall buildings might be a bad thing? As ARTHUR would have it, that’s not such a bad thing…

        More:

        There are eyewitnesses of rivers of molten metal under the ruins but hey let’s not call any of this a reasonable argument.
        ……………………

        The idea that hot metal being present at Ground Zero meant that this atrocity was pulled off by the ‘filthy Infidels’ makes no sense whatsoever.

        More:

        Heroin cultivation in the fields of Afghanistan increased to obscene levels after the US and her allies began guarding those fields and even helping transport the product. All of this is irrefutable fact too. Look it up for yourselves. Around the same time heroin deaths began skyrocketing in the US.
        ……………………

        Let me get this straight–Americans murdered almost 3000 Americans so that they could murder more Americans? Bad, bad Americans–ignore those Jihadists–they don’t mean any harm! sarc/off

        More:

        Or join the useful idiot brigade who have to write slanderous lies to dehumanize and defame anyone who doesn’t go along with their official false narratives. ARTHUR didn’t write anything to suggest he doesn’t believe in ongoing forever jihad going on since AD 622. ARTHUR is merely pointing out the complicity to murder by a certain criminal cabal in our own government just like the President of the United States of America has been doing since 2016. None of this has been refuted. It is irrefutable.
        ……………………

        Does ARTHUR have to not only refer to himself in ALL CAPS but also in the third person? I suppose that ARTHUR does.

        Note that ARTHUR has never posted anything here against Jihad that I can recall seeing. But suggest that it might not have been Infidels who pulled off 9/11, and he’s all over it…

  3. Diane Harvey says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 10:03 am

    “If the Taliban don’t behave, if they don’t deliver on the commitments that they’ve made to us now for weeks, and in some cases months, the president is not going to reduce the pressure”

    Oh, sure, these Muslim fighters will disregard 1400 years of the entrenched Islamic tradition of killing the kafir and killing those whom they don’t consider Islamic-enough, all based on their Qur’an, and henceforth will obey Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump.

  4. Sabri S. says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 10:06 am

    The solution is simple, fair and in the best interest of these countries – fight and blow these racist, imperialist kaffirs off your land, just like in Lebanon in 1983!! No let up, until all american and israeli occupiers are eradicated and driven out! It is an embarrassment to the entire muslim summa that in 2019, muslims cannot only not defend their own homelands but have to live under garbage, american puppet governments. Islam will never fall or live under subjugation of kaffirs. The Taliban ARE Afghans and have the support of 80% of the country…no one wants or benefits from this garbage american racism, neocolonislism or occupation masquerading as “wars”…talk to your fellow americans…they are truly stupid beyond belief!

    • RonaldB says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 12:57 pm

      By American puppets, I guess you include the Wahabbi, Islam-controlled government of Saudi Arabia.

      Please do me a favor and go to the very Islamic country of Saudi Arabia and express the very sentiments you’re expressing here. Prior to leaving on the trip, please leave instructions as to what you wish done with your head, after it is chopped off in the public square.

      Other than that, I’m perfectly content to leave the Muslim countries alone, which is what we should have done in the first place. In the cases of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, and attempted to do in Syria, is replace a basically secular government with what always turn out to be Islamists. We’re much better off leaving completely well enough alone.

    • Angemon says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 2:20 pm

      “The solution is simple, fair and in the best interest of these countries – fight and blow these racist, imperialist kaffirs off your land, just like in Lebanon in 1983!!”

      Well, Sabri, your coreligionists did tried their darnedest – and failed. Like in Iraq. They’re simply not up to snuff and, if Trump wants it, they can easily become a speck in a sea of molten glass.

      But perhaps you should go there and lead by example – show your coreligionists how it is done? Or does all your strength and willingness to wage jihad end in your mouth?…

    • Wellington says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 3:05 pm

      Sabri S. What about “Muslim occupiers” taking over huge swaths of land centuries ago? Or do only kuffaars engage in occupation while Islam “merely spreads?”

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 7:32 pm

      The vile Sabri S. wrote:

      The solution is simple, fair and in the best interest of these countries – fight and blow these racist, imperialist kaffirs off your land, just like in Lebanon in 1983!!
      …………………….

      Of course Sabri S. hates anyone who was trying to bring peace to Lebanon–can’t have that. Note that he does not say how peace is “racist”.

      Christian-majority Lebanon used to be known as the “Paris of the Levant”, until Muslims invaded in large numbers in the early 1970s, destroying much of the Christian population there.

      Today, Lebanon is under the heel of Hezb’allah, and is largely used as a base from which to launch violent Jihad against Israel.

      More:

      No let up, until all american and israeli occupiers are eradicated and driven out! It is an embarrassment to the entire muslim summa that in 2019, muslims cannot only not defend their own homelands but have to live under garbage, american puppet governments.
      …………………….

      How *dare* the Infidels protect women and minority-sect Muslims? They have to be slaughtered and stoned to death.

      More:

      Islam will never fall or live under subjugation of kaffirs. The Taliban ARE Afghans and have the support of 80% of the country…no one wants or benefits from this garbage american racism, neocolonislism or occupation masquerading as “wars
      …………………….

      Well, Sabri S. is right that most Afghans support this Islamic savagery–which is why we cannot civilize these barbarians, and should risk no more of our blood and treasure trying.

  5. mortimer says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 10:20 am

    Some problems are more difficult than others. Afghastlistan’s main problem is the grip medieval Islam has over the minds of the people. Once that grip is loosened through education, the people will behave in a more modern way and the Taliban will get less and less support. The growth of Afghanistan’s infrastructure, industry and commercial and trade systems will also lessen the appeal of the Taliban. People will not want the Taliban to destroy everything Afghans are building. The education of Afghan girls is also a priority in this development, since educated women will influence the growth of human rights and minority rights.

    There is only a long-term, slow progress that can be hoped for in this backward, deeply-divided nation with tribes that straddle its borders steeped in internecine hatreds. Western impatience will not make this painful process go any quicker. The Afghans are learning to become modern by degrees.

    • elee says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 11:02 am

      If educating women is the key to defeating Islam, how do you explain the behaviours of university-based Islam-loving western libbers?

    • RonaldB says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 1:12 pm

      Even if what you say is true, it’s not the job of the US government to pour money and lives into rescuing the victims of Islam in other countries.

      If you look at pictures of Afghanistan from the 1960s, like in Iran, the women used to wear miniskirts and there was far more freedom. Part of the problem is the US support for Islamist fighters against the Soviet-backed King in Afghanistan. The US didn’t have enough data points to realize there is never a benefit to supporting Islamists, but we definitely have enough information on that now.

      My opinion is, if the Afghans wish to free their country from the Taliban, they should go into the mountains and do it. The US has no security interest in the outcome. Pouring money and lives into fighting Islam in Afghanistan emphatically does not make the US safer from domestic and infiltrating Muslims.

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 7:38 pm

      The Afghans have had almost twenty years of access to Western education–and it has not much helped, because the country is almost 100% Muslim.

      The same is true with Muslims in the West–but even more so. Many Jihadists have had a good Western education, but this is trumped by Islam.

  6. somehistory says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 10:31 am

    According to Reuters : “More Americans will die after Trump abruptly ends Afghan talks, Taliban say ”

    moslims all over the earth have Americans in their cross hairs….as well as anyone from any nationality who opposes their takeover of the earth and the enslaving of mankind to their fake god and fake prophet…and the evil demon, the source of their belief, satan the devil.

    • Spiro says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 10:50 am

      More Americans will die
      That’s exactly what they have in mind for any group that does not cave to their demands
      Trump is right on this

  7. elee says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 10:55 am

    Do not entertain these bastards at Camp David. Do not welcome them to any place my government controls. Never negotiate with any Muslim, they are under scriptural direction to betray whatever agreement they swear to whenever they can do better by resuming hostilities. Leave Afghanistan if we must, but dont claim to sit down with them and represent me.

  8. Isntlam says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 11:45 am

    The average IQ in Afghanistan is eighty-six points.
    https://www.worlddata.info/iq-by-country.php

    • elee says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 2:24 pm

      Too much beating their tiny brains on the floor and mooning the heavens to honor al Lah?

    • James Lincoln says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 2:47 pm

      Isntlam,

      Yes, the average IQ of people in Afghanistan is 86. Partly caused by inbreeding.

      Since this is an average, some are below 86 – and some are above 86. Some small percent are even likely in the normal range of 100.

      Here’s the problem as I see it:

      Normal or above average IQ Muslims would be theoretically able to process objective, evidence-based logic that would have them reject Islam.

      Muslims with significantly below average IQs do not even have the capacity to critically analyze Islam. Their imams do the thinking for them – and they just follow like obedient sheep.

      In a country like Afghanistan, the bell curve of IQ is shifted far to the left – with most Afghans limited with significantly below average IQs. Thus most are people have low intelligence, high emotion – and are obedient followers of an evil ideology that is Islam.

      Admittedly, not easy problem to fix…

      • Isntlam says

        Sep 9, 2019 at 3:10 pm

        The whole Muslim world is in the same IQ range. Even lower parts of Africa.

  9. Krishna says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 12:05 pm

    Someone Invade the country and destroy taliban

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 7:43 pm

      Krishna, the problem is that all too many Afghans support the Taliban. They are not a tiny element that can just be easily wiped out. Over 90% of Muslims there support the imposition of brutal Shari’ah law.

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 10, 2019 at 1:25 pm

      The Taliban also has a safe haven in neighboring Pakistan.

  10. Don McKellar says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 12:36 pm

    If Trump’s administration still has a free hand and everybody there knew anything about Islam, they would realize that a ruthless, complete scorched earth policy, followed by complete withdrawal and a promise of a nuclear follow-up if there are any more problems for America originating in Afghanistan. I would even say that whatever the Taliban’s greatest stronghold city should get the Hiroshima treatment as an example — not only just for Afghanistan, but for the moslem world. But of course none of that will ever happen.

    • RonaldB says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 1:16 pm

      If the US forces are to withdraw completely, what would be the benefit of a scorched-earth policy? Only to assuage the wet-dreams of keyboard warriors. Ditto for destroying cities.

      In fact, the US fulfilled half its mission in the early weeks of the Afghan invasion: destroy the Taliban fighting force. The second half of the mission, kill bin Laden, was easily in hand, but thrown away by the incompetent George W. Bush administration which, like Bush’s business dealings, invariably turned everything into mush.

  11. Naram-Sin says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 12:44 pm

    Why would we reduce our support if they behave?

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 7:48 pm

      The idea is that the Afghan government–such as it is–is a bulwark against the Taliban’s savagery. Sadly, I think they will cave almost immediately.

  12. RonaldB says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 1:29 pm

    Robert Spencer, as usual, shows great wisdom, knowledge and insight in his analysis and prescription.

    I would only add my own opinion that the benefit of what Trump is doing is to emphasize the point that the US should be taken seriously. It is a tactical point with a strategic purpose.

    If the US withdraws, it is obvious the Taliban will take over sooner or later. Unless there is an unforeseen outbreak of Afghan nationalism, which is always possible but not likely. But, while the Taliban have their long-range goal firmly in hand, they are testing to US to see if they can push beyond the timetable of the agreement. There is no real reason for them to break the agreement, other than a general determination to make kuffirs look bad. So, in one way, it makes sense for the Trump administration to show that the US will assert its strength. This will assist in confrontations which do involve real US security. Of course, most of the confrontations in which the US is involved, like in the Ukraine-Russia confrontation, the US has no interest whatsoever, and is exerting a negative force.

    So, again here are the choices: the Taliban adheres to the tactical agreements with the US and gains control over Afghanistan on a timetable; or the Taliban goes for broke, pitting itself against an unleashed US force for the advantage of gaining power a year or two ahead of time. There’s certainly a chance that Trump’s gamble on that could pay dividends. It’s more reasonable to me than the rat-hole of nation building we inherited from the Bush administration.

  13. Infidel says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 2:13 pm

    Solution here: get our ‘Saudi allies’ to get the OIC to get a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan composed of countries that don’t have a history of vested interests in Afghanistan. Namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, for starters. Have them replace all US troops there, and have our ‘Arab allies’ fund it

    Let them deal with the Taliban, al Qarda, ISIS anyway they please

  14. Angemon says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 2:17 pm

    To be sure, Trump is in a difficult position. All his Democrat opponents want to do is destroy him; they don’t care about anything else. So as long as he keeps American troops in Afghanistan, they will carp about “forever wars.” But if he withdraws our troops from Afghanistan, the establishment media will trumpet every gain the Taliban make after we’re gone, and scream that Trump has betrayed our gallant Afghan allies in the Ghani government.

    Yup. I hate partisanship.

    • gravenimage says

      Sep 9, 2019 at 7:52 pm

      Grimly true.

  15. gravenimage says

    Sep 9, 2019 at 7:17 pm

    Pompeo: “If the Taliban don’t behave, we’re not going to reduce our support for the Afghan security forces”
    …………………..

    The Taliban are never going to behave–except as pious Jihadists.

  16. Walter Sieruk says

    Sep 10, 2019 at 11:08 am

    Pompeo is right about the about the Taliban needing to “behave.” What is also true is that the Taliban might behave but only until they gain back their power . After that they will behave in according their their own “.Which are the “values” of Islam. Such Islamic “values ‘ are very brutal and cruel in regard to their treatment of females. both girls and women.
    o
    For example, on the morning of April 17, 2019 on FOX NEWS television the subject was covered about the idea of having “peace talks “with the Taliban. Viewing the history of the Taliban when they were in power in Afghanistan and the brutal ruthless misogyny they had engaged in was both vicious and malicious to the extreme.

    Therefore the question ,naturally, was brought up ,now that peace talks” might soon begin, the Taliban it was asked it they return to power in Afghanistan “ would they respect female rights ?”

    To that question the Taliban replied “that when back in power they would respect Women‘s rights but only to the limits of the cultural of will they permit those rights of women.”

    The point is that the “cultural of Afghanistan” is really the religion of Afghanistan, which is Islam.

    Therefore the reality is that female rights, for both girls and woman, will not exist in a future Taliban controlled Islamic state of Afghanistan . For Islam is a religion of harsh and malice- filled misogyny.

    As explained in the book, by Brigitte Gabriel, of the title THEY MUST BE STOPPED. Her book informs the readers on page 172. “Woman in Islam are considered unclean, deemed inferior even to dirt.”

  17. Walter Sieruk says

    Sep 10, 2019 at 11:18 am

    What Pompeo and many other officials in the US government need to understand is that the Taliban might fake in “behaving” but only as long as they need to pretend being civilized until the US forces leave Afghanistan . Then ,once back in power, they will show their true colors by behaving and the oppressive Muslim savages that they really are.

    Any “peace” agreement with Taliban is a “Deal with devil “ in other words a “fools deal.” The very idea of having actual, real, genuine productive “peace talks” with those brutal ,cruel misogynistic Taliban characters is an absurd and fool idea of folly.

    One thing is for sure, even if even attempting to engage on “peace talks” with Taliban it would be best not to be naive about them and take at face value anything that they might say or promise. To just “give trust away” to those Islamic characters who compose the Taliban would be foolishness and folly. For when trying to have genuine negotiations with the them ,it need to be kept in mind that there is an Islamic doctrine called TAQIYYA This is the Muslim dogma the lying and deception are good things to do, if and as long as the lies and deceit are done for the advancement of Islam.

    For the deceptive and disingenuous Taliban have proven many times over, by their own actions, that they are a ruthless, brutal vicious gang of thugs with no honor. So in any kind of “dialogue” the Taliban will most likely speak the truth only when it happened to suite them. The rest of the time they will be speaking half-truths and also be outright lying. Likewise, the Taliban will keep their word in anything that they may happen to promise only and long as in fits into their agenda and no longer. So before engaging of the foolishness of attempting to have genuine “talks for a peace alliance” with Taliban, the officials of the current government would do well to heed the wisdom of Sun Tzu found in THE ART OF WAR. For it instructs “We cannot enter into an alliance neighboring’s princes, until we are acquainted with their designs.” To put this in a more updated and current way, it may be said that “We cannot enter into a peace alliance with the Taliban until we know the actual intentions and real schemes.”

    Furthermore, if attempting to engage in “peace talks” with Taliban it would be very naïve to take at face value anything that the Taliban might promise. For example, the Taliban might say that they will respect the rights of women and girls, for they ,many times, employ the Islamic doctrine of Taqiyya In those so called “negotiations” with officials of the West .Taaqyia ids the Islamic teaching that lying and deceit
    So it may be nothing but foolishness and folly to even try to have worthwhile constructive peace discussions with lying brutal cruel men who make up the Taliban . For having a genuine practical peace compromise with Taliban might be impossible

    As the former US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, had well-spoken when he said “There has never been – there never can be – successful compromise between good and evil.”

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