Afghanistan made history this weekend, or, more accurately, the country is now further down the road of making history.
On Sunday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani delivered a speech to 3,400 Afghan delegates assembled in Kabul precisely for the occasion. The topic up for debate: releasing the last 400 Taliban prisoners and effectively granting them a pardon. Ghani’s pitch: The release should occur for the sake of the peace process.
Those last few hundred men were labeled by Kabul as the worst of the worst, individuals who were convicted of murder, terrorism, rape, and other high crimes. Yet Ghani, who has staked his political legacy on being a peacemaker for his citizens, finally came around to supporting the release after initial resistance. The Loya Jirga’s positive reaction to the speech gave Ghani the ability to spread the blame in the event some of those men return to the battlefield.
It’s not like Ghani had a choice. The United States, which funds a sizable chunk of the Afghan government’s annual budget, made it abundantly clear through a press statement that Kabul needed to swallow its misgivings and free these prisoners. Ghani could have technically refused to do so, but he would have been depicted as the perennial obstacle to Afghanistan’s best chance at peace in a generation. A refusal also would have been a snubbing of a U.S. administration whose president, Trump, has blasted the idiocy and futility of the war for a decade and likely wouldn’t think twice about getting out completely.
That’s not a risk Ghani wants to court; Kabul has enough problems.
The Taliban thanked the Afghan government for its decision and said formal negotiations will commence in 10 days. Some speculate the first session will happen even sooner. The prisoner issue has turned out to be highly aggravating for all parties involved. This includes the Trump administration, which had to pull Kabul’s teeth throughout the entire process. Now that the issue has been put to bed, the Afghan government and Taliban negotiators can get down to brass tacks.
The intra-Afghan dialogue is where the rubber hits the road. These peace talks will be anything but smooth. Indeed, if it took roughly six months for 6,000 prisoners to be released (the Taliban freed 1,000 Afghan soldiers and civilians of their own), it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone if it took years for the two sides to find consensus on the big political items of the day. Deciding which member of the Taliban can leave prison will look like a cakewalk compared to haggling over the role of Islam in Afghan society, how much representation the Taliban will receive in a future government, how to ensure Taliban fighters disarm and reintegrate into the Afghan security forces, and how much power women and minorities will be afforded. Each one of these issues is red meat for heated disagreement.
There are 8,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says the numbers will be below 5,000 by November. Those numbers need to keep going down until they reach zero. According to a new poll, about 76% support bringing U.S. troops home from Afghanistan. Nineteen years after this conflict began, Washington should start listening to the people it represents.
It’s past time for the U.S. military to return to their families and for Afghans to do the hard work required for peace in their country.
Daniel DePetris (@DanDePetris) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. His opinions are his own.
