There Is No Point to Extending Commitments in Afghanistan
By Daniel Davis
February 11, 2021
On Jan. 22, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told his Afghan counterpart that the Biden Administration would assess whether the Taliban are living up to their commitments to cut ties with terrorist groups. While such an assessment is entirely reasonable for an incoming Administration, it must not be used as an excuse to halt the May 2021 end date of our military operations in Afghanistan, which the United States agreed to last year.
The deal brokered by the Trump Administration last February called for the United States to completely withdraw its troops from Afghanistan by May 2021. There were four primary conditions for this withdrawal. The U.S. government and Taliban representatives agreed to a number of conditions. These include a guarantee by the Taliban that Afghanistan would never be used by any group or individual as a base to plan attacks against the United States; a timeline for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Afghan soil; that the Taliban will start “intra-Afghan negotiations with Afghan sidesâ€; and that a “permanent and comprehensive cease-fire will be an item on the agenda of the intra-Afghan dialogue and negotiations.â€
https://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2021/02/11/there_is_no_point_to_extending_commitments_in_afghanistan_660098.html
