Why did the US allow the Taliban to takeover Afghanistan? - BBC News

to understand the decisions president biden has taken in afghanistan we need to understand the decisions taken by his predecessor donald trump because in early 2020 the us signed a deal with the taliban in afghanistan 19 years going on 20 years and there hasn't been a moment like this we've had very successful negotiations we think they'll be successful in the end joe biden said this deal meant he inherited a stark choice when i came into office i inherited a deal that president trump negotiated with the taliban the choice i had to make as your president was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season not everyone except this was a binary choice president biden has after all rapidly reversed or altered a range of trump policies not here though so let's look at what the agreement he's followed contains back in 2020 donald trump's goal was clear time to come home and they want to stop you know they've been fighting a long time secretary of state mike pompeo called it the best opportunity for peace in a generation and he was present when on february 29th last year the deal between the taliban and the u.s was done note also present was the taliban political chief muller abdul ghani baradar he was the taliban official who signed the deal he'd been released from a pakistani jail at the request of the u.s and this is what was in the deal first of all it put a date on the u.s departure there would be a full withdrawal of all foreign forces by may 2021 so long as the taliban kept to its side of things the date was pushed back by joe biden to august but the deal told the taliban precisely when the americans would exit the conflict in return the taliban made a number of commitments the taliban agreed to not attack u.s personnel it promised to restrict any activity that could threaten the u.s including terror attacks abroad here's the section in the deal it reads the taliban will not allow any of its members other individuals or groups including al-qaeda to use the soil of afghanistan to threaten the security of the u.s and its allies the taliban in return got the release of thousands of fighters who were in prison here's the text of the deal again it says the deal commits the afghan authorities to expeditiously release combat and political prisoners as a confidence-building measure with the coordination and approval of all relevant sides that was the u.s effectively agreeing to the release of prisoners in afghanistan without involving the afghan government the prisoners released were fighters and senior figures from an organization with a long record of killing civilians and restricting women's rights and girls education it was build remember as a confidence building measure no doubt it was for the taliban less so for many others and for good reason subsequent research by the afghan peace dialogue project in northern ireland found that former taliban prisoners were participating in combat being killed fighting being taken prisoner and one case of an ex-prisoner being involved with revenge assassinations the deal also contains multiple references to the need for a political settlement in afghanistan here's the phrase a new post-settlement afghan-islamic government as determined by the intra-afghan dialogue and negotiations in other words a deal between the taliban and the government talks between the two sides did take place last year but went nowhere this is the then president ashraf ghani speaking to the bbc's du set about the talks it takes two parties we have a sense of urgency do you think the taliban are negotiating in good faith well the jury is out the president's jury was out the fact that those talks didn't make any headway is something mike pompeo has since picked up on he told fox news sunday the deal obliged the taliban to engage in meaningful power-sharing agreement talks before we completed our requirement to fully withdraw he would put the failure to enforce that at president biden's door other former trump officials think the problem was in the deal itself donald trump's second national security adviser h.r mcmaster has since bluntly dismissed it as a surrender agreement there was another concern too in the months that followed the times correspondent anthony lloyd reflected i can't think of a recent successful peace deal which has excluded the government from negotiations more recently lisa curtis an afghanistan expert who served during the trump administration has described the doha talks as an unfair negotiation because nobody was looking out for the interests of the afghan government well as the taliban advanced through june and july president biden's emphasis was on the afghan government taking responsibility we gave them every tool they could need we paid their salaries provided for the maintenance of their air force we gave them every chance to determine their own future but the government joe biden wanted to have the strength and confidence to resist the taliban with the same government the americans left outside the negotiating room in doha it's the government the u.s didn't tell before leaving bagram air base in july perhaps in the end rather than building confidence the deal did the reverse for the government when its relationship with afghans was already fragile all of which doesn't explain everything about the taliban's takeover nor does it settle the rights and wrongs of the u.s withdrawal it does though help us understand the consequences of that withdrawal remember abdulgani baradar he went from prison in pakistan to talks with the americans and now to this a triumphant return to afghanistan last week he's now a central figure as the taliban plans a new government then there's ashraf ghani the man not at the negotiating table in doha when the talks were happening he was president and elected president last week he was in exile posting statements on facebook and being told by the us that he was no longer a figure in his country and then there's joe biden and the us not budging an inch i stand squarely behind my decision after 20 years i've learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw u.s forces which leads us back to the deal when it was done both sides had their top priority the outcome they wanted above all else for the us it was getting out for the taliban it was getting power and now the americans are leaving donald trump wanted this joe biden wants this not in these circumstances of course but he wants it to happen all the same and then there's the taliban it now controls the streets and the country both priorities have come to pass and the doha deal played its part in making sure they did