The U.S. and the Taliban Are Near a Deal. Here’s What It Could Look Like.

Much of Afghanistan's problems come from outside influence. Weapons and fighters flowing across the border from Pakistan for example, our supposed "ally" in the region. The central government is and always will be too weak to cover the country. Provincial tribes organized as a confederacy is the only real future for the country.

I hate to sound bitter, or worse...insipid, but what did we expect?

I didn't need to spend a year downrange to understand that we had some pretty Poly-Anna goals, but it helped me frame that understanding a little better...I hope. Imagine if the CSA had won at Gettysburg, that Britain had come in on the side of the Union in 1862, and the Rebel navy had shelled London...now assume that with a CSA victory almost total, the British Army arrived to advise/support what was left of the Army of the Potomac.

You think those boys in red would've had a clue how to navigate complexities of the origins of the dispute between North and South? What are the odds that with JEB Stuart running amok in Pennsylvania and Marlyand, that the "Copperheads" would begin wide-scale guerilla warfare, largely supported by the local populations? Think any U.S. generals or politicians with significant holdings at risk may have attempted working back-door deals with Richmond? What about when a significant number of the citizens of the North began thinking that perhaps the British crown would take the opportunity to regain their former colonies? Is it possible that after a couple decades of "peacekeeping", what was left of the Union and Confederacy would put aside some of their differences to oust the foreigners?

That's why this was somewhat doomed from the start; it's a civil war between factions that have an awful lot more in common with one another, than we do with either of them. With our support and funding, we also brought western ideologies that require cultural changes that simply aren't going to happen. We tried to teach them to fight like us...without any realistic way of influencing them to think like us. At the end of the day, all the Taliban has to do is give up a little...whereas we'd have to convince more than half the population to give up quite a bit more.

Just my $.02

Currently out here. The issue isn't just with the Taliban, it's the fact that we have other major players out here that are devoted to making sure this situation is perpetuated. Regardless of these so call "peace talks" Taliban leaders are being "replaced" regularly because they are not being as aggressive as the puppet master(s) instruct them to be. It's nice to see that we might actually give the TB a seat at the table, seeing as that may be the only way were able to exit this war.