About 14,000 American soldiers were absent from their family Christmas dinner tables this holiday season. But they could be back with their families next December — if our leaders would bring them home from our failed war in Afghanistan, that is.

The current state of affairs is not promising. On Dec. 29, the Taliban council agreed to a temporary ceasefire in Afghanistan to pave the way for peace talks, but the Taliban chief has yet to agree to the measure. It doesn’t seem he’s too interested in peace. Just the evening before, the Taliban had claimed responsibility for an attack in Northern Afghanistan that killed 17 local Afghan fighters.