The US chief negotiator had indicated sometime back that a peace deal with the Taliban was under process. It was not known to most people that the US President and also lined up a secret meeting at Camp David. This was to be attended by the leader of the Taliban group and President of Afghanistan. The aim was to thrash out a final solution to the ongoing Afghan war.

Afghan war

The Afghan war is going on for 19 years with no end in sight. This was perhaps the reason that prompted the president to try and end the war with a negotiated peace. As part of the strategy, he had organized the peace talks at Camp David.

Unfortunately for the President, the Taliban on Saturday morning carried out an attack in Kabul and 12 persons were killed. One soldier of the US Army was also killed. BBC has reported that the Taliban has stated that the USA would lose the "most" with the cancellation of the talks

The Taliban took credit for this attack. This was the fuse that angered the US President prompting him to cancel the peace talks in America. Trump who sometime back canceled a last-minute attack on Iran also mentions that he would not be having any more talks with the Taliban. He made a very pertinent point. He stated that a group that cannot see the importance of a meeting and carries out a terrorist attack in which a US soldier is killed cannot be trusted.

The talks

The Taliban has been negotiating with the US chief negotiator for close to two years. The talks are taking place in Doha and the likely agreement was the US forces withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban declared a ceasefire. It was anticipated they would discuss with the Afghan Government and form a broad-based government.

Despite the optimism of the chief negotiator, the Taliban is known to opt-out of many agreements. Even, when the talks were on the Taliban, continued its attack on government forces and civilians, killing hundreds in suicide bomber attacks. Trump should have ended the charade and maybe he could have incorporated Indian and Pakistani troops to fight the Taliban.

Pakistan

Unfortunately, Pakistan has been running with the hare and hunting with hounds and it has escaped retribution from the United States for whatever reason we do not know. Trump recognized the problem but he also did not move militarily against Pakistan. Maybe in the fond hope that Pakistan which was an earlier an ally, would pull the chestnuts out of the fire. The Washington Times has reported that the president in tweets on Saturday evening wrote that he has “called off peace negotiations.” He also accused the Taliban of perpetrating the attacks to strengthen their negotiating hand.

The terror group is now much stronger than it was in 2003. In 19 years of the war, one fails to understand how the Americans never bombed the terror havens and sanctuaries in Pakistan.

This has been a blunder and has resulted in over 2000 US serviceman being killed.

Future

One cannot forecast the future and there is a possibility that at some stage, the US may again resume talks with the Taliban. The chances however of total peace in Afghanistan look remote. The key to the Afghan war is the destruction of the sanctuaries in Pakistan and the removal of the Pakistan government which has been backing the Taliban for almost three decades. One has to wait and see what steps Trump takes next.