DIY Cheap Charlie

[rooster59]

Trump says he cancelled peace talks with Taliban over attack

By Phil Stewart and Jason Lange

 

FILE PHOTO: Angry Afghan protesters burn tires and shout slogans at the site of a blast in Kabul, Afghanistan September 3, 2019. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said he cancelled peace talks with Afghanistan's Taliban leaders after the insurgent group said it was behind an attack in Kabul that killed an American soldier and 11 other people.

 

Trump said he had planned a secret meeting with the Taliban's "major leaders" on Sunday at a presidential compound in Camp David, Maryland. Trump said he also planned to meet with Afghanistan's president.

 

But Trump said he immediately called the talks off when the insurgents said they were behind the attack.

 

"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 said on Twitter.

 

Taliban fighters, who now control more territory than at any time since 2001, launched fresh assaults on the northern cities of Kunduz and Pul-e Khumri over the past week and carried out two major suicide bombings in the capital Kabul.

 

One of the blasts, a suicide attack in Kabul on Thursday, took the life of U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class Elis A. Barreto Ortiz, 34, from Puerto Rico, bringing the number of American troops killed in Afghanistan this year to 16.

 

A spike in attacks by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan has been "particularly unhelpful" to peace efforts there, a senior U.S. military commander said on Saturday as he visited neighbouring Pakistan, where many Taliban militants are based.

U.S. Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, who oversees American troops in the region, declined to comment on the diplomatic negotiations themselves.

 

Earlier this week, U.S. and Taliban negotiators struck a draft peace deal which could lead to a drawdown in U.S. troops from America's longest war. But a wave of Taliban violence has cast a long shadow over the deal.

 

"It is particularly unhelpful at this moment in Afghanistan's history for the Taliban to ramp up violence," McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, told reporters travelling with him.

 

McKenzie said for the peace process to move forward, "all parties should be committed to an eventual political settlement" which, in turn, should result in reduced violence.

 

"If we can't get that going in, then it is difficult to see the parties are going to be able to carry out the terms of the agreement, whatever they might or might not be," McKenzie said.

 

Under the draft accord, thousands of U.S. troops would be withdrawn over the coming months in exchange for guarantees Afghanistan would not be used as a base for militant attacks on the United States and its allies.

 

However, a full peace agreement to end more than 18 years of war would depend on subsequent "intra Afghan" talks.

The Taliban have rejected calls for a ceasefire and instead stepped up operations across the country.

 

NEW CIVIL WAR?

 

For Afghans, the Taliban's recent escalation of attacks has underscored fears it may be impossible to reach a stable settlement following any complete U.S. withdrawal.

 

Many have worried about a fracture along ethnic and regional lines, with Persian-speaking Tajiks and Hazaras from the north and west against southern and eastern Pashtuns, the group that have supplied most of Afghanistan's rulers and where the Taliban draw most support. Memories of the 1990s civil war are vivid.

 

Some Taliban are based in neighbouring Pakistan, where McKenzie held talks on Saturday with a top Pakistani general. More talks are scheduled for Sunday.

 

McKenzie said he did not know whether any of the planning for the recent wave of attacks in Afghanistan came from Pakistan-based militants.

 

But McKenzie commended Pakistan for supporting the peace efforts in Afghanistan, in the latest sign of an improvement in long-fraught relations between Washington and Islamabad.

 

"A lot of Pakistanis have been killed by militant attacks inside Pakistan. I think Pakistan sees the benefits of a stable Afghanistan," McKenzie said.

 

(Reporting by Phil Stewart in Islamabad and Jason Lange in Washington; Editing by Marguerita Choy and Chris Reese)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-09-08

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[Tug]

You invited the talaban to camp David really???thats just bizarre is he just lying again?

Edited September 8, 2019 by Tug

[pegman]

 Whatever leverage the Americans had with the religious nuts Taliban was lost when Trump declared the troop withdrawls. 

[pegman]

6 minutes ago, Tug said:

You invited the talaban to camp David really???thats just bizarre is he just lying again?

There is a 87% chance that yes, he is lying once again.

Edited September 8, 2019 by pegman

[mtls2005]

There's a tweet for that...

 

 

 

 

[sirineou]

 Wasn't  there a thread last week about the withdrawal of US Troops from Afghanistan by trump based on the promise by the Taliban ? and I quote :

"In exchange for the phased withdrawal, the Taliban would commit not to allow Afghanistan to be used by militant groups such as al Qaeda or Islamic State as a base for attacks on the United States and its allies. "  

https://forum.thaivisa.com/topic/1121387-us-to-withdraw-5000-troops-from-afghanistan-close-bases-us-negotiator/?tab=comments#comment-14530353

 

Edited September 8, 2019 by sirineou
typo

[ballpoint]

1 hour ago, Tug said:

You invited the talaban to camp David really???thats just bizarre is he just lying again?

Of course he is.  He wouldn't make any money out of them coming to Camp David.  He invited them to Mar a Lago.

[Puchaiyank]

You can trust these people to keep their word..."Death to America and Israel"!   ????

[klauskunkel]

2 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Trump says he cancelled peace talks with Taliban over attack

he also said he would send a hurricane to their camp

[dabhand]

8 minutes ago, klauskunkel said:

he also said he would send a hurricane to their camp

And he can arrange for a map to prove it......

[thaiguzzi]

1 hour ago, Puchaiyank said:

You can trust these people to keep their word..."Death to America and Israel"!   ????

Er, why not?

Isn't that what you would say to a foreign country invading YOUR land?

 

Another unwinnable war.

These idiots just never seem to learn a lesson.

The Russians did - don't <deleted> with Afghanistan.

I mean, what reason is there that any Western forces are even there?

No you can't tell me, and neither can any politician's bluster.

Opium? Let 'em get on with it.

War on terror? don't be so ridiculous.

[Tug]

1 hour ago, Boon Mee said:

NOAA proved him right. 

Another Fake News back biting scurrilous attack on Trump goes down in flames. 

You don’t really belive that do you?

[Srikcir]

3 hours ago, pegman said:

There is a 87% chance that yes, he is lying once again.

Let's raise that to 95%.

"three other American service members have been killed in recent weeks" ahead of Trump's alleged peace talks talks. http://lite.cnn.io/en/article/h_97b60dbca55d4fce890b460fc296fdf5

But it's the last and fourth recent American soldier's death that triggered Trump's cancellation of talks in the U.S.?  It's more likely resistance from Republican Senators and American generals to U.S.-based Taliban peace talks that squelched Trump's peace talks in the U.S.

Time for Bolton to resign.

[lust]

It’s funny how Afghanistan was once a hip and very beautiful country. I did a tour of Afghanistan in 2009-2010. What a waste hole. They are literally fighting over who owns the sand box and mud huts. The taliban brought aghanistan back to the Stone Age. 

 

If there were no optimum fields there, the war would be over.

[scorecard]

5 hours ago, Srikcir said:

Let's raise that to 95%.

"three other American service members have been killed in recent weeks" ahead of Trump's alleged peace talks talks. http://lite.cnn.io/en/article/h_97b60dbca55d4fce890b460fc296fdf5

But it's the last and fourth recent American soldier's death that triggered Trump's cancellation of talks in the U.S.?  It's more likely resistance from Republican Senators and American generals to U.S.-based Taliban peace talks that squelched Trump's peace talks in the U.S.

Time for Bolton to resign.

"Time for Bolton to resign." agree.

 

I just wonder if there's another hidden item re the clowns cancellation of talks; given his total lack of progress after 3 meetings he's realizing another failed discussion would not look good on his CV? 

 

   

[JemJem]

Even seeing 'Taliban' and 'peace talks' in the same sentence makes me feel sick. Such talks should NEVER have started. Taliban is a terror group that should be crushed. I was against the invasion of Iraq and still feel sad that those Western politicians responsible (and who have blood in their hands) haven't paid any price, and will most probably never pay any price ; but, I applauded the full-scale attack against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

 

Have most Americans (and in fact people in the whole world overall) forgotten about the horrors of 9/11 ? Why hasn't there been much outrage at the conducting of talks with this Islamofascist terror group ? Sad !

Edited September 9, 2019 by JemJem

[bangrak]

On 9/8/2019 at 5:43 AM, thaiguzzi said:

Er, why not?

Isn't that what you would say to a foreign country invading YOUR land?

 

Another unwinnable war.

These idiots just never seem to learn a lesson.

The Russians did - don't <deleted> with Afghanistan.

I mean, what reason is there that any Western forces are even there?

No you can't tell me, and neither can any politician's bluster.

Opium? Let 'em get on with it.

War on terror? don't be so ridiculous.

You never heard about natural gas resources, nor about 'strategic' pipelines to transport gas and petroleum through Afghanistan, as the main interest of both Russians and Americans, did you 'thaiguzzi'?

Oh, and also about the British Empire in its days having had quite a 'bloody nose' in Afghanistan, leading to the British 'leaving it for what it was', and rather resorting to deals, from the outside, with local-, medieval-, tribe-, war-, drugring- leaders, more often all of this together...?

[bendejo]

On 9/7/2019 at 10:12 PM, lust said:

The taliban brought aghanistan back to the Stone Age. 

There is a natural affinity between all conservative movements worldwide: they all want to turn back time.  In the US you can try to spot their epoch when they campaign for president.  E.g. Romney wanted to go back to the 1950s, assorted southerners to antebellum days, Rick Santorum to the Dark Ages.  Muslim fundamentalists would be quite happy to settle for 7th century AD.

 

Hey what happened to that great piece of GOP bravado: "WE DON'T NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS!!"

 

 

[bendejo]

On 9/7/2019 at 10:06 PM, Srikcir said:

Let's raise that to 95%.

"three other American service members have been killed in recent weeks" ahead of Trump's alleged peace talks talks. http://lite.cnn.io/en/article/h_97b60dbca55d4fce890b460fc296fdf5

But it's the last and fourth recent American soldier's death that triggered Trump's cancellation of talks in the U.S.?  It's more likely resistance from Republican Senators and American generals to U.S.-based Taliban peace talks that squelched Trump's peace talks in the U.S.

Time for Bolton to resign.

Is it time for DT to face a Benghazi-style inquisition yet?

 

 

[wayned]

Kim Jong Un's advice to the taliban leader is :  Just send Trump a "love letter" and he'll turn the talks back on antwhere you want them, even the white house!

[simple1]

10 hours ago, JemJem said:

Even seeing 'Taliban' and 'peace talks' in the same sentence makes me feel sick. Such talks should NEVER have started. Taliban is a terror group that should be crushed. I was against the invasion of Iraq and still feel sad that those Western politicians responsible (and who have blood in their hands) haven't paid any price, and will most probably never pay any price ; but, I applauded the full-scale attack against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

 

Have most Americans (and in fact people in the whole world overall) forgotten about the horrors of 9/11 ? Why hasn't there been much outrage at the conducting of talks with this Islamofascist terror group ? Sad !

Unless US & NATO commit sufficient forces to wipe out the Afghan Taliban and other Islamist forces in Afghanistan, then fund reconstruction, replacing opium production, address endemic corruption etc etc the war will continue. Currently there is no Western political appetite for increasing funding / resources, with the consequence of talks to enable US/NATO withdrawal, with the strong likelihood for the Afghan Taliban to regain power. In addition you will know of the ethnic religious war within Afghanistan. Should Taliban regain power there will be another wave of Shiite and other minority refugees.

Edited September 9, 2019 by simple1

[kiwiaussie]

No great loss I’m sure. Trump set up meetings with Christian conservatives and the NRA so they could swap notes with the taliban on best practices they can deploy in America. 

[mtls2005]

This appears to have been a cock-up of maganificent proportions, with the president and a few aides (Jared? Jared's coffee boy?) inserting themselves into the process in attempt to garner the long-coveted Nobel Peace prize. Bolton and Pompeo were unaware of the Camp David Coffee Klatch, until near when it fizzled. They can't be happy campers.

 

He thinks he a "closer". Hint: He's not.

 

He's a "Closer" without the "C".

 

 

 

 

Edited September 10, 2019 by mtls2005

[bangrak]

On 9/8/2019 at 5:43 AM, thaiguzzi said:

Er, why not?

Isn't that what you would say to a foreign country invading YOUR land?

 

Another unwinnable war.

These idiots just never seem to learn a lesson.

The Russians did - don't <deleted> with Afghanistan.

I mean, what reason is there that any Western forces are even there?

No you can't tell me, and neither can any politician's bluster.

Opium? Let 'em get on with it.

War on terror? don't be so ridiculous.

Ooh, 'thaiguzzi', nothing to tell about my #19 below about this post of yours, just an 'emoticon', that's it? Is it then that you didn't know about the gas and ducts, ...or just that this does not fit into your 'reasoning'...?

[Scott]

Troll post and reply removed.

 

[Bluespunk]

On 9/8/2019 at 8:06 AM, Srikcir said:

Let's raise that to 95%.

"three other American service members have been killed in recent weeks" ahead of Trump's alleged peace talks talks. http://lite.cnn.io/en/article/h_97b60dbca55d4fce890b460fc296fdf5

But it's the last and fourth recent American soldier's death that triggered Trump's cancellation of talks in the U.S.?  It's more likely resistance from Republican Senators and American generals to U.S.-based Taliban peace talks that squelched Trump's peace talks in the U.S.

Time for Bolton to resign.

He’s been sacked

 

Trump sacks national security adviser John Bolton https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49655279

 

 

[thaiguzzi]

12 hours ago, bangrak said:

Ooh, 'thaiguzzi', nothing to tell about my #19 below about this post of yours, just an 'emoticon', that's it? Is it then that you didn't know about the gas and ducts, ...or just that this does not fit into your 'reasoning'...?

Are you drunk?