A fresh wave of violence has gripped Afghanistan following the announcement of “spring offensive” by the Taliban. The recent of these assaults came on Saturday when a Taliban car bomber killed 13 people in Afghanistan’s Khost city that targeted a CIA-funded militia group. Recently, Taliban have killed at least 15 Afghan soldiers in an attack on a military base in Kandahar province, while five others were injured in an assault on the facility in Shah Wali Kot district. All these events have coincided with the US President Donald Trump’s first international visit that covered the Middle East and Europe, with terrorism being the primary focus. Despite being involved in the war in Afghanistan for more than a decade and a half, Trump hardly discussed the Afghan issue despite hundreds of causalities in past few weeks. Although the US and other NATO allies are considering sending thousands of more troops to back up the Afghan military as it battles the insurgency, a seemingly tougher stance from President Trump towards the NATO countries on defence expenditure and a general vivid approach from Washington towards the Afghan issue are further adding to the problem. Meanwhile, although Russia and China have tried to fill the vacuum by trying to initiate dialogue with the Taliban along with the regional countries, not much headway has been made either, especially with the US refusing to attend the moot. Since announcing the withdrawal of NATO forces in 2014, the US policies in Afghanistan have remained in limbo. While it has shown an inclination towards appeasement approach, a continued violence from Taliban and an unclear stance from the US of talks and battle at the same time have not allowed any peace efforts to succeed. Lastly, this cycle of violence has been on repeat for many years. All the concerned stakeholders are aware of the fact that Afghan forces are not battle-hardened and trained enough to combat the Taliban on their own. Moreover, the aftermath of 2014 partial withdrawal and staying back of US troops for the training of Afghan forces has not helped either, Therefore, the US needs to come out of the oblivion on its Afghan policy and embrace the fact that it cannot make any headway on the issue without clarifying its own stance on the issue first. *