Small Wars Journal

Afghanistan Peace Negotiations May Be Dead, But The War’s Still Very Much Alive

Mon, 09/30/2019 - 10:10am

Afghanistan Peace Negotiations May Be Dead, But The War’s Still Very Much Alive by Meghann Meyers – Military Times

Nearly 18 years after U.S. forces first dropped into Afghanistan, yet another administration is struggling to get out of the quagmire.

And the struggle is not going well.

As much as he wanted to pull troops out, President Donald Trump, like his predecessors, has not found the way forward.

Quite the opposite.

When Trump took office, there were about 8,400 troops in Afghanistan. Now there are about 14,000. Troop deaths have risen to the most in years, the Taliban holds more territory than ever and a new foe, ISIS-K, has emerged to add to the deadly misery.

Trump has signaled his eagerness to withdraw in recent months, lamenting that troops are acting more as police officers and public works employees than war fighters…

Read on.