March 3
On This Day In 2020
You call this “The Art of the Deal?" Trump’s diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad negotiated a pact with the Taliban, largely out of sight, and without the participation of the Afghan government we were defending. The deal drastically cut American forces and air raids, thereby depriving the U.S. of its critical advantage over the Taliban’s military.
And most importantly, Donald Trump committed the United States of America to largely withdraw from Afghanistan by May 2021.
OTDI 2020, just three days after Trump’s team signed the agreement, Taliban fighters resumed their insurgency against the U.S.-sponsored Afghan government. Feeling abandoned (mainly because they had been abandoned), demoralized government forces collapsed quickly.
It was a truly great Deal—for the Taliban.
Because it’s important for the United States to keep its word in international agreements, even if our leadership changes, President Biden followed through on Trump’s promise. He honored the deadline mandated by Trump and brought the U.S. forces home. For doing so, Trump World attacked Biden viciously and blamed Biden for the exit!
Setting the deadline for our withdrawal was a “SAD” way to end a two-decade war in which 76,591 U.S.-led coalition forces and contractors gave their lives.
Sources/Links for further reading
The U.S. State Department published the Trump/Khalilzad deal
The United States Institute of Peace explained the semi-secrecy of the Taliban deal
@Meghann_MT in The Military Times’ summarized the Pentagon’s independent inspector general’s report on how the U.S. failed Afghanistan
Newsweek described the Trump-Biden blame game
@schanzerdavid summed it up well in The Hill
Summary: Trump capitulates to the Taliban