US right to pull pin on Taliban

Donald Trump’s wish to find a political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan is understandable. But he was right, on the eve of the 18th anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks, to abruptly cancel peace talks that have been going on with the Taliban for more than a year, and to withdraw from a secret meeting scheduled with Taliban leaders at Camp David to seal a purported peace deal. As much as he might want an accord that would bring home the US’s 14,000 troops before next year’s presidential election, it would have been a mistake to do otherwise. While Washington’s Afghanistan-born chief negotiator, Zalmay Khalilzad, has been unfailingly upbeat about peace prospects, absent have been signs of any genuine Taliban willingness to make meaningful concessions.

Mr Trump’s immediate reason for cancelling was the death of an American soldier among 12 people killed in a Taliban bombing near the US’s Kabul embassy — the 16th US soldier killed this year. “What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position?” Mr Trump asked. The Taliban, of course, which has never for a day ceased attacking, refusing even to agree to a ceasefire as part of a peace deal or to negotiate directly with the elected Afghan government that the US and allies such as Australia have spent years sustaining at immense cost.

Still, the US was set to go ahead with an agreement to withdraw 8600 of 14,000 troops almost immediately, with the rest home before next year’s election, abandoning Afghanistan largely to its own devices. Mr Khalilzad claimed the Taliban had agreed not to allow the return of al-Qa’ida and to act against Islamic State, a rapidly growing menace in Afghanistan. But there is good reason to doubt that. It would be hard to see such a flimsy deal as anything but an ill-conceived concoction that, like Barack Obama’s misguided rush to get US troops out of Iraq, was set to give away far too much for far too little. All the great work and immense sacrifice by the US and allies would potentially have been put at risk. It is as well Mr Trump responded decisively. Far more damaging to his re-election prospects than any failure to bring home US troops would be having the medieval Taliban, with its murderous extremism, back in power and Afghanistan again a springboard for global terrorism.