This scene from the British version of The Office sums up the Taliban’s attitude thus far toward their U.S. peace deal.
Because the Taliban are currently very chilled out about living up to their end of this supposedly momentous bargain.
According to the U.S. military, since the deal was signed on Saturday, the Taliban have carried out nearly 100 attacks against the Afghan government across more than two dozen provinces. At the same time, their official website is celebrating President Trump’s delivery of phone call plaudits on the Taliban’s moral courage.
But the Taliban’s not-so-affectionately titled website, Voice of Jihad, is also doing something else. As Thomas Joscelyn of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies observes, Wednesday, day five of the enacted agreement, still hasn’t seen the Taliban follow through on one of their most basic promises.
Day 5 of U.S.-Taliban deal. We are eager to report on the Taliban’s “break” from al-Qaeda, its renunciation of al-Qaeda & its efforts to “destroy” al-Qaeda. Thus far, the Taliban’s prolific websites are silent on AQ, but those same sites are trumpeting attacks on Afghan forces. pic.twitter.com/f0BqAXQn2A
— Thomas Joscelyn (@thomasjoscelyn) March 4, 2020
Alongside the attacks, which have resulted in the resumption of U.S. airstrikes to support Afghan forces under fire, the Afghan government is refusing to do what the United States has unilaterally agreed with the Taliban that it must do. Unsurprisingly balking at the idea of making concessions to the Taliban as it launches a nationwide onslaught against his soldiers, President Ashraf Ghani is refusing to release around 5,000 Taliban prisoners without further negotiations.
Members of Congress are now pushing back against the Trump administration for its failure to provide adequate supporting evidence for the peace deal. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney is leading the charge here. She says that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has failed to deliver promised evidence that the Taliban has actually committed to rejecting al Qaeda. This comes after Pompeo responded to earlier complaints by pledging that the evidence would be provided.
To be sure, this deal may simply be going through growing pains. It was always likely the Taliban would test the margins in the early stages. But so far, not so good. Some might even say this was predictable.
