Today will go down in history as the day the United States and the Taliban came to an agreement. An agreement to remove all United States troops from Afghanistan and end this extremely long war. It will be a gradual change. However, this monumental event has paved the way for the beginning of peace in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo witnessed this historic event of the Taliban’s chief negotiator, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and the US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, signing the agreement.
An End to the Long War
The war in Afghanistan has been the United States’ longest war. In order to finally establish a ceasefire, the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan was created. Within the agreement, the United States agreed to slowly begin removing the troops stationed within Afghanistan. The 14-month timeline states the removal of:
“all military forces of the United States, its allies, and Coalition partners, including all non-diplomatic civilian personnel, private security contractors, trainers, advisors, and supporting services personnel.”
We can expect the pace of this withdrawal from the country to be predicated by the actions and movements of the Taliban over the next months. Within the next 135 days, we would thousands of troops returning home.
Should We Be Worried?
The Taliban has been vocal over their separation from al Qaeda. It is easy for this to be misplayed though. Over the next year the United States will be holding a close eye on the actions of the Taliban to ensure that this movement is correct and safe for our nation. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement:
“if the Taliban do not uphold their commitments, Trump and his team will not hesitate to do what we must do to protect American lives.”
The agreement was signed today, February 29, 2020 in Doha, Qatar.
