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Zippyjuan
09-07-2019, 07:28 PM
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/07/758690667/trump-says-he-called-off-secret-talks-at-camp-david-with-taliban-afghan-leaders


President Trump says Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and major Taliban leaders were set to meet with him at Camp David on Sunday, but he canceled the negotiations after learning about a Taliban attack.

In a series of tweets on Saturday, the president said the Camp David talks were supposed to be a secret.

"Unbeknownst to almost everyone, the major Taliban leaders and, separately, the President of Afghanistan, were going to secretly meet with me at Camp David on Sunday. They were coming to the United States tonight," the president wrote.

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Before the meeting could take place, Trump said, the Taliban admitted to a Kabul attack that killed 12 people, including an American soldier.

"If they cannot agree to a ceasefire during these very important peace talks, and would even kill 12 innocent people, then they probably don't have the power to negotiate a meaningful agreement anyway," Trump tweeted.

The White House and the State Department both declined to offer any further details about Trump's statement.

Until now, it had appeared that the U.S. was nearing a deal with the Taliban that would bring home some, if not all, of the 14,000 U.S. troops still stationed in Afghanistan.

Swordsmyth
09-07-2019, 07:32 PM
The pullout will happen no matter what.

Schifference
09-07-2019, 07:34 PM
Trump has to ask himself one question. How many people has the US killed in the name of peace?

Zippyjuan
09-07-2019, 07:39 PM
Trump has to ask himself one question. How many people has the US killed in the name of peace?

That is a national secret. The numbers are too "inconvenient" to report. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47480207


Trump revokes Obama rule on reporting drone strike deaths

President Donald Trump has revoked a policy set by his predecessor requiring US intelligence officials to publish the number of civilians killed in drone strikes outside of war zones.

The 2016 executive order was brought in by then-President Barack Obama, who was under pressure to be more transparent.

Since the 9/11 terror attack, drone strikes have been increasingly used against terror and military targets.

The Trump administration said the rule was "superfluous" and distracting.

The order applied to the CIA, which has carried out drone strikes in countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia.

"This action eliminates superfluous reporting requirements, requirements that do not improve government transparency, but rather distract our intelligence professionals from their primary mission," an official said.

What was the rule?
It required the head of the CIA to release annual summaries of US drone strikes and assess how many died as a result.

Mr Trump's executive order does not overturn reporting requirements on civilian deaths set for the military by Congress.

There have been 2,243 drone strikes in the first two years of the Trump presidency, compared with 1,878 in Mr Obama's eight years in office, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a UK-based think tank.



(he also shifted control over the drone programs from the military to the CIA so they could be even more secretive)


https://theintercept.com/2019/05/07/syria-civilian-deaths-defense-department-pentagon/


The Pentagon Is Reporting Low Civilian Death Tolls in Syria and Iraq.

Without Accountability, People Will Keep Dying.

LAST THURSDAY, the Department of Defense released a report to Congress laying out its latest data for civilian casualties caused by U.S. military operations. For a Syrian American like me, this is not a mere list of faceless statistics but an opportunity for the U.S. to finally reckon with reality and accept long overdue responsibility for U.S.-led coalition actions in Raqqa, Syria. Not surprisingly, the Defense Department’s report fails to do so.

The Defense Department reported that approximately 793 civilians were killed by the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria during its fight to uproot the self-described Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS, in 2017. While the report lists a higher number of civilian casualties in 2017 than had been previously reported, the figures pale in comparison to findings from an unprecedented joint investigation by Amnesty International and Airwars, which concluded that the U.S.-led coalition killed at least 1,600 civilians in Raqqa during just four months in 2017. The 2018 figures are similarly asymmetrical. The Pentagon’s assessment reports 120 total civilian deaths as a result of U.S. military operations in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia, while Airwars found that the U.S.-led coalition killed between 821 and 1,712 civilians in Iraq and Syria alone.

By continuing to significantly underreport civilian casualties, the Trump administration abdicates responsibility for human rights violations and potential war crimes in Raqqa and other theaters. And by failing to reckon with its inability to protect civilians, the United States cannot use these mistakes to reorient wider U.S. policies towards safeguarding the well-being of people. Instead, the U.S. is poised to continue relying on the disproportional use of military force — and so the civilian death toll will continue to rise.

enhanced_deficit
09-08-2019, 12:23 AM
Trump Says He’s Called Off Negotiations With Taliban After Afghanistan Bombing

By Michael Crowley, Lara Jakes and Mujib Mashal
Sept. 7, 2019

WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Saturday that he had canceled a secret meeting at Camp David with Taliban leaders and the president of Afghanistan and was calling off monthslong negotiations that had appeared to be nearing a peace agreement.
“Unbeknownst to almost everyone,” Mr. Trump wrote in a series of tweets (https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1170469619154530305), Taliban leaders and the Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani, were headed to the United States on Saturday for what would have been a politically fraught meeting at the president’s official Camp David retreat in Maryland.
But Mr. Trump said that “in order to build false leverage,” the Taliban had admitted to a suicide car bomb attack on Thursday that had killed an American soldier and 11 others in the capital of Kabul. “I immediately cancelled the meeting and called off peace negotiations,” he wrote.
“If they cannot agree to a ceasefire during these very important peace talks, and would even kill 12 innocent people, then they probably don’t have the power to negotiate a meaningful agreement anyway,” Mr. Trump added. “How many more decades are they willing to fight?”

The president’s announcement was startling for multiple reasons. A surprise summit at Camp David with leaders of an insurgent group that has killed thousands of Americans since the October 2001 invasion of Afghanistan would have been a sensational diplomatic gambit, on par with Mr. Trump’s meetings with the once-reclusive North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un. A senior administration official said the meeting had been planned for Monday, just two days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, which were plotted from Afghanistan and led to the United States’ invasion of the country.
Mr. Trump’s statement also appears to scuttle — for now — his longstanding hope to deliver on a campaign promise to withdraw American troops from an 18-year conflict that he has called an aimless boondoggle.

Several people familiar with the diplomacy between the Trump administration and the Taliban puzzled over Mr. Trump’s stated decision to cancel peace negotiations entirely in response to one American casualty, however tragic. The Taliban had not agreed to halt their attacks on Americans in advance of a formal agreement. That raised the question of whether Mr. Trump might have been looking for a pretext because the talks had run into trouble.
The development is sure to inflame a Washington political debate about the talks that until now had largely played out in national security circles to little public fanfare. Mr. Trump had been coming under growing pressure from conservatives not to hastily exit the country while many leading Democrats have said they support peace talks leading to an American withdrawal.

Many details of the scrapped Camp David meeting were unclear on Saturday night. The senior Trump administration official said that the decision to cancel the meeting had been made on Thursday, but that Mr. Trump had delayed his announcement. On Friday, Afghan officials confirmed that Mr. Ghani postponed a planned meeting in Washington. One person familiar with the diplomacy said that the plan for a Taliban visit to Washington had not been under discussion until about a week ago. (Taliban representatives have not yet confirmed that they ever planned to attend such a meeting.)

Mr. Khalilzad had proposed drawing down American military troops in exchange for a partial cease-fire by the Taliban. In a recent interview with the Afghan channel ToloNews, he said 5,400 United States forces (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/02/world/asia/us-withdrawal-afghanistan-taliban.html?module=inline) would leave Afghanistan within 135 days of a signed agreement.

Under that tentative deal, the number of American troops would have initially been reduced to about what it was when Mr. Trump took office in 2017.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/07/us/politics/trump-taliban-afghanistan.html





https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/624/cpsprodpb/EE6F/production/_108593016_3472cd86-354d-469e-962a-176fafc36fbd.jpg


Two NATO soldiers killed, 9 U.S. Special Forces soldiers evacuated with traumatic brain injuries

9/6/19
Sgt. Barreto was killed when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (IED) detonated on September 5 in a suicide attack. The attack also claimed the life of a Romanian soldier.
That attack led to another blast targeting the U.S. forces who responded to the initial explosion. This attack wounded at least nine U.S. Special Forces soldiers, some seriously. An anonymous Defense Department source told Newsweek that the nine soldiers had been medically evacuated with traumatic brain injuries.

https://d.newsweek.com/en/full/1525830/afghanistan-explosion.jpg
A tractor packed with explosives caused a massive blast in Kabul on September 3. Two days later, a similar attack in the city killed Sgt. Barreto and a Romanian soldier.
https://www.newsweek.com/army-paratrooper-killed-afghanistan-suicide-attack-identified-1458163

Zippyjuan
09-08-2019, 11:56 AM
The pullout will happen no matter what.

The latest is that they want to reduce forces to 8,600. That would be about as many as there were when Trump took office.

Zippyjuan
09-08-2019, 12:01 PM
The Taliban don't need any peace deal. They aren't going anywhere and have been gaining territory. The US wants one.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49628290


Afghan peace deal: Taliban says US has most to lose from cancelled talks


The Taliban says Americans have the most to lose from cancelling peace negations that sought to end the 18-year war in Afghanistan.

In a statement, the group claimed all was going well until the last moment.

US President Donald Trump fired off a series of tweets on Saturday night, calling off the secret meeting at his Camp David retreat the following day.

He said his decision came after the Taliban admitted being behind a recent attack that killed a US soldier.

What had been planned?
In an unexpected move, Mr Trump had arranged to meet with senior Taliban leaders and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the Maryland retreat.

The meetings were likely to have been kept separate, as the Taliban refuses to talk directly with the Afghan government, insisting they are American puppets.

In 2001, the US invaded Afghanistan and overthrew the Taliban government because the militants had given safe haven to the al-Qaeda network to plan the attacks on the US on 11 September.

On Fox News on Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo defended the intention to host the Taliban on US soil, days ahead of the attacks' anniversary.

He said Camp David was chosen because it has held difficult peace negotiations in the past. "It's almost always the case that you don't get to negotiate with good guys," he added.

How far had things come?
Nine rounds of talks had already taken place between the US and Taliban representatives in Doha, the capital of the Gulf state of Qatar.

On Monday, the top US negotiator announced a peace deal "in principle".

As part of the proposed deal, the US would withdraw 5,400 troops within 20 weeks, in return for Taliban guarantees that Afghanistan would never again be used as a base for terrorism.

The US currently has about 14,000 troops in Afghanistan.

What else did the Afghan parties say?
In the statement, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid also accused the US of lacking maturity and experience, after pulling out of talks over one incident.

He also said that the Taliban and the Afghan government had agreed to talks on 23 September. The Afghan government has not confirmed this.

In a news conference in Kabul, a spokesperson for President Ghani simply repeated a long-standing wish for direct negotiation with the group.

"We strongly believe in a process that can be led and owned by Afghan government and Afghan people," said Sediq Sediqqi.

What sparked the cancellation?
On Thursday, a Kabul car bombing carried out by the Taliban killed 12 people, including a US soldier. A Romanian soldier serving with the Nato-led mission was also killed.

But the Taliban had never agreed to end their violent campaign against Afghan and foreign forces while the peace talks were taking place. Sixteen US troops have been killed this year.

A recent escalation of violence had deepened fears that a looming US-Taliban agreement would not end the daily fighting in Afghanistan and its toll on civilians.

Yet Kabul residents on Sunday questioned why the death of one US soldier should scupper prospects for peace.

"So, the Afghans who have been losing their sweet lives during all these years, is their blood worthless?" asked one grocery shop owner who spoke to the BBC's Pashto language service.

Swordsmyth
09-08-2019, 04:13 PM
The latest is that they want to reduce forces to 8,600. That would be about as many as there were when Trump took office.
That was part of a phased withdrawal and the rest would have been pulled out as the Taliban fulfilled their parts of the bargain.
Before the peace talks began Trump wanted to just pull out but he agreed with his advisors to try peace negotiations, if they do fail entirely he will revert to a unilateral withdrawal.

oyarde
09-08-2019, 04:22 PM
https://www.npr.org/2019/09/07/758690667/trump-says-he-called-off-secret-talks-at-camp-david-with-taliban-afghan-leaders

What states would he be on the ballot in ( Sanford )? I would consider him but he is way too late as I have committed to voting for myself .

Swordsmyth
09-08-2019, 09:10 PM
The United States and Afghanistan's Taliban on Sunday both left the door open to fresh talks after President Donald Trump abruptly canceled a secret summit, but the insurgents threatened to inflict greater costs.Washington also said it would not relent in fighting the militants after Trump blamed the scuttling of the unprecedented meeting on a Taliban attack that killed a US soldier.
Trump said he had invited Taliban leaders and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani for talks Sunday at the Camp David presidential retreat on a draft deal that would see the United States withdraw thousands of troops and wind down its longest-ever war.
In a series of television interviews, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did not rule out a return to talks but said the United States needed a "significant commitment" from the Taliban.
"I'm not pessimistic," Pompeo told NBC. "I've watched the Taliban do things and say things they've not been permitted to do before."
"I hope it's the case the Taliban will change their behavior, will recommit to the things that we've been talking to them about for months," he said on ABC.
"In the end, this will be resolved through a series of conversations," he added, urging the Taliban to drop their long-running refusal to negotiate with Ghani's internationally recognized government.
He said that Trump had not decided whether to go ahead with a withdrawal, which under the draft deal would pull 5,000 of the roughly 13,000 US troops from Afghanistan next year.

But Pompeo warned that the United States was "not going to reduce the pressure" on the Taliban, saying US forces had killed more than 1,000 insurgents in the past 10 days alone.


Veteran US negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad had spent a year meeting with the Taliban, who said that Trump showed "neither experience nor patience."
"Americans will be harmed more than any other" by Trump's decision, warned a statement by the group's spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
But he added that the Taliban still believed "that the American side will come back to this position" of talks that seek "the complete end of the occupation."
The office of Ghani, whose government is rejected by the Taliban as illegitimate, cautiously saluted the "sincere efforts of its allies" after Trump called off the summit.
The Afghan presidency in a statement also insisted that "real peace can only be achieved if the Taliban stop killing Afghans and accept a ceasefire, and face-to-face talks with the Afghan government."


Islamabad, meanwhile, urged both sides to "re-engage to find (a) negotiated peace from the ongoing political settlement process."
"Pakistan looks for optimized engagement following (the) earliest resumption of talks," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

More at: https://news.yahoo.com/us-taliban-keep-open-door-talks-summit-scrapped-152405240.html

angelatc
09-08-2019, 09:29 PM
As Ron Paul said, we just marched in, we can just march out. 1170824303358742532

As Amash said, at this point Trump and only Trump is keeping the troops in Afghanistan. This is just political theater.

157918533655871488

oyarde
09-08-2019, 09:51 PM
The Taliban don't need any peace deal. They aren't going anywhere and have been gaining territory. The US wants one.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49628290

All they have to do is offer to surrender and then the US leaves and they can go back and do whatever they want . What am I missing ?

angelatc
09-08-2019, 10:04 PM
All they have to do is offer to surrender and then the US leaves and they can go back and do whatever they want . What am I missing ?

Surrender to whom? They were legally government in Afghanistan.

CCTelander
09-08-2019, 10:06 PM
As Ron Paul said, we just marched in, we can just march out. 1170824303358742532

As Amash said, at this point Trump and only Trump is keeping the troops in Afghanistan. This is just political theater.

157918533655871488


"You must spread some Reputation around..."

kpitcher
09-08-2019, 10:46 PM
For all we actually know the secret meeting was no different than the phone call a few weeks ago from China to get back to the table, you know, a complete fabrication.

oyarde
09-09-2019, 06:57 AM
Surrender to whom? They were legally government in Afghanistan.

If I was the taliban I would tell anyone whatever they wanted to hear to get them to leave .

EBounding
09-09-2019, 07:41 AM
Trump is just waiting for a meaningful peace agreement with the Taliban while he is running for re-election. This will happen because Trump. Have you read Art of the Deal?

TRUST THE PLAN

angelatc
09-25-2019, 07:14 PM
If I was the taliban I would tell anyone whatever they wanted to hear to get them to leave .

Yeah but then the heroin supply would dry up again.