It is time to leave Afghanistan, Taliban tell Trump

Reuters, AP
US troops leave Afghanistan’s Camp Leatherneck after 13 years, in this October 2014 file photo. (Reuters)

KABUL: The Taliban has called on President Donald Trump to withdraw US forces from the “quagmire” of Afghanistan, saying that nothing has been achieved in 15 years of war except bloodshed and destruction.
In an open letter to the new US president published on one of its official web pages, the insurgent movement said the US had lost credibility after spending a trillion dollars on a fruitless entanglement.
“So, the responsibility to bring to an end this war also rests on your shoulders,” it said.
The letter, also e-mailed to journalists on Wednesday, was written on behalf of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s spokesman, warns Trump that peace will be elusive as long as foreign troops are on Afghan soil.
He adds that independence from foreign dominance is “the only asset” that an impoverished nation like Afghanistan truly has.
Written in English, as well as Afghanistan’s two prominent languages Dari and Pashto, the four-page letter waxed on about Afghanistan’s history, its numerous defeats of invading armies and the reported corruption widespread in Afghanistan today.
So far, Trump has had little to say publicly about Afghanistan, where some 8,400 US troops remain as part of the NATO-led coalition’s training mission to support local forces as well as a separate US counter-terrorism mission.
Two of his top security appointments — retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense and former Gen. Michael Flynn as national security adviser — both have extensive experience in Afghanistan.
The Taliban, however, warned Trump against relying on the kind of “unrealistic” reports presented to former presidents by their generals, saying: “They would emphasize continuation of war and occupation of Afghanistan because they can have better positions and privileges in war.” The US would not accept foreign forces on its territory or even in a neighboring country, said the Taliban. It accused Washington of imposing a “surrogate administration” on Afghanistan in the face of popular Muslim resistance.
“You have to realize that the Afghan Muslim nation has risen up against foreign occupation,” it said.
The Taliban has made steady inroads against the Western-backed government in Kabul since coalition forces ended their main combat mission in 2014, with government forces now in control of only two thirds of the country.
It has repeatedly urged the US and its allies to leave Afghanistan, ruling out peace talks with the Kabul government while foreign forces remain on Afghan soil.
Trump has sharply criticized past US administrations for their handling of conflicts in the Muslim world but he has also pledged to eradicate militant Islamists around the globe.