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Afghanistan’s government has been excluded from talks between the U.S. and the Taliban and has accused Pakistan of supporting the insurgency.
The Afghani government requested Tuesday United States President Donald Trump explain his boast of terminating the Afghan war in 10 days by wiping out Afghanistan and its 10 million residents.
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“The Afghan nation has not and will never allow any foreign power to determine its fate,” the presidential palace stated.
“The government underscores that foreign heads of state cannot determine Afghanistan’s fate in absence of the Afghan leadership,” the palace said.
Afghanistan’s government has been excluded from talks between the U.S. and the Taliban and has accused Pakistan of supporting the insurgency.
The strong response comes after Trump, following a meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan at the White House on Monday, said that Pakistan could help broker a political settlement to end the nearly 18-year-old war in Afghanistan.
“I have plans on Afghanistan that if I wanted to win that war, Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the earth, it would be gone, it would be over in literally 10 days,” the head of state casually said, justifying that he won’t do it as he doesn’t want “to kill 10 million people.”
Khaled Hosseini, the author of the best-selling novel, “The Kite Runner,” which introduced Afghanistan to many foreign readers, called Trump’s remarks “reckless, appalling.”
you should care that they have also caused thousands of US casualties. Your insulting message to AFGs is either accept the PAK proposal for peace or eventually you may have to use nukes, as you repeatedly alluded that you have been presented with plans & have the capacity
— Rahmatullah Nabil (@RahmatullahN) July 23, 2019
After the September 11 attacks in New York City, the U.S. government invaded Afghanistan as part of the so-called "war on terror," with the objective to dismantle Al-Qaeda by removing the Taliban from power.
However, after a short-run removal, the Taliban regrouped between 2003 and 2008, to fight back and retake most of the country. The U.S. government now has found themselves in the position to broker a deal with the Taliban.
After spending almost US$975 billion in the longest conflict in U.S.' history, which has taken approximately 220,000 lives, Trump’s comments on winning the war in 10 days seems too optimistic and an “insult to all Afghans,” as Shakib Noori, an entrepreneur based in Kabul told Reuters.
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