US should trade with Taliban for counterterrorism support

On Tuesday, at least 25 people were killed in a terrorist attack by the Islamic State on a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Involving suicide bombers and gunmen, the attack targeted Taliban personnel being treated at the hospital.

This ISIS campaign is a significant problem for the Taliban. It doesn’t simply give the Taliban a taste of their own medicine, being similar in form to previous Taliban attacks. In addition, it undermines a core message of the group’s governance model: security and stability. ISIS attacks also threaten to fray ideological support away from the Taliban and into ISIS. The narrative of Islamist leadership in Afghanistan is not something that the Taliban wish to fight over.