President Ashraf Ghani missed
the golden opportunity to crush his political opponents I have been optimistic about the fact that the US is serious
about getting to pull out of Afghanistan. For years, the US system was divided
on the wisdom of a negotiated settlement. No more. President Donald Trump shook
his establishment into pursuing an end to the war in earnest. The US machinery
remains in overdrive to make something happen through the ongoing talks. But I
wonder now if we are overstating the willingness among other key actors in
achieving the same. Indeed, the way the deck is laid out, we require irrational
behavior from brutally self-interested actors to get to a solid deal. At least
as the theory of negotiations goes, this is not a good place to be in, and in
conversation with some Afghans they don't think the US is sincere in its
commitment to pullout of Afghanistan. 
There is increasing talk about Afghan President Ashraf Ghani
playing spoiler. He has been uniting with some political forces in Afghanistan
to raise the costs for the US and others to detach him. He has constantly indicated
that any deal without his government can't be accepted. Troubling, but
rational. He is not doing well politically and, by all accounts, will likely
lose a fair election unless there is some major development in his favor. He
missed the golden opportunity during the Loya Jirga to crush his political opponents.
If I was President Ghani I would have offered the Taliban as much power as possible
as long as they agreed that Afghanistan will not go backwards as it happened during
their rule.
Political sacrifice would have made President Ghani a hero
just by offering his resignation on the first day of the Loya Jirga to the
Taliban and his political opponents if they were to join in the Loya Jirga and
find a path to peace. Heroes are not made by mentioning your past achievements
but what will occur after your last sacrifice for your nation.
The Afghans are disappointed with the outcome of the Loya
Jirga, the outcome stated we want peace, instead of finding a solution as to the
steps needed for the peace. If the answer was for the Taliban to stop fighting,
it is a dream.
The Taliban. For the most part, their worries for political
legitimacy and the keen acknowledgement of the hopelessness of a military
victory makes them a genuinely pro-peace deal player. And yet, they are
hard-pressed to point to any meaningful concessions from their side since the
Doha talks began.
Among the various
theories explaining the Taliban's inflexibility, the one that they hope for the
most is that they can prolong the peace talks so the US president will sooner
or later tweet his way to an abrupt pullout. On the other hand, no matter what
deal they strike, they must go through a complicated process of convincing
their fighters that they haven't sold out to the US. If so, would they prefer
playing the delaying game rather than sincerely negotiating a compromise deal?
Is this what is happening in Doha? I would think as an Afghan you would be interested in saving Afghan lives and negotiate foreign troop’s pullout as soon as possible when we can be assure there will be no civil war. Mateen Karzai
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