Excerpt:
Opinion: Trump killed the Afghanistan peace process. But there’s still a chance to get it right
By Cynthia P. Schneider Sep. 24, 2019
...
Tilting the talks toward the Taliban ignores realities on the ground. The rebels control just 15% of Afghanistan’s territory. Their approval rating among Afghans, according to Saad Mohseni, head of the nation’s largest media company, has never been higher than 12%. As a 23-year-old Afghan man — wounded in the same Sept. 5 Taliban bombing that killed Army Sgt. 1st Class Elis A. Barreto Ortiz — said, “There is no point in trying for peace when the Taliban does such terrible things to innocent people.â€
...
American commentators pressing for withdrawal dwell on the “waste†of a nearly two-decade commitment of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. But Afghans have made huge strides in what is actually a short period of time. The Afghanistan government shows the nation’s gross national income has increased fivefold since 2003 (U.S. troops arrived in 2001). The Taliban banned education for girls; now about 4 million are in school. Women are working in every aspect of the economy and in government (more than 25% of the Afghan Parliament is female).
On the global stage, the Afghan cricket team cemented its participation in the World Cup this year with a daredevil game that almost bested India, ranked No. 2 in the world. The Afghan National Institute of Music sent an all-female orchestra on a world tour, an Afghan female robotics team competed in an international contest and Afghan journalists such as Lotfullah Najafizada have been recognized in their fight for press freedom. When the Taliban were in power, media were suppressed, music was forbidden, and competing in sports competitions, like education for girls, was banned.
Full article at: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-09-23/afghanistan-peace-process-donald-trump-ashraf-ghani
So, the author makes effective points, "Rebels control just 15% of the country"?? It seems we usually hear the Taliban controls half the country or something. So, we need to find out all of the facts.
