Many Afghans view Saturday’s expected signing of a U.S.-Taliban peace deal with a heavy dose of well-earned skepticism. They’ve spent decades living in a country at war and wonder if they can ever reach a state of peace.
The deal is meant to set the stage for a U.S. troop withdrawal and to usher in talks among Afghans on both sides of the conflict about their country’s future.
There’s been bitter squabbling among political leaders, concern of a temporary truce being undermined, and the challenge of uniting a fractured country remains daunting.
Afghanistan’s economy has been wracked by 18 years of fighting, despite billions of dollars spent on nation building. Some 55% live in poverty, or less than $1 a day, up from 34% in 2012.
Transparency International last year ranked Afghanistan 173rd of 180 countries it monitors, scoring it 16 out of 100.
President Donald Trump has been critical of Washington’s spending in Afghanistan.
“We’re really serving, not as a military force, as we are a police force,” Trump said earlier this week while on a visit to India. “They have to police their own country.”
Under the peace plan, 13,000 U.S. troops will initially draw down to 8,600, Trump said. Much of the plan remains vague, except to say American troops will withdraw and that the Taliban promise not to let extremists use the country as a staging ground for attacking the U.S. or its allies.
Taliban leaders told The Associate Press that if everything goes according to plan, all U.S. soldiers would be out of Afghanistan in 14 months. Washington has not confirmed such a timeline.
The agreement also stipulates the release of 5,000 Taliban from Afghan-run jails, but it’s not clear if the government will agree to that.
The Taliban now control or hold sway over half the country, and are at their most powerful since the U.S. invasion.
