Daily Times

Poor old Donald Trump. He’s had a busy time of it. The week kicked off with him being denounced as a Nazi sympathiser. Which seems fair enough, actually. Yet what is making political pundits everywhere, and in this region particularly, hold their collective breath is the wait-and-see on whether he will go all the way. Meaning, will the apprentice-president risk being labelled a Taliban sympathiser?

For it is the hurly burly men of the Afghan Taliban – with their wily ways of talking flattery to power – that have just gone and offered Trump what he has always wanted, or at least wanted since January. Namely, an exit strategy from the quagmire in that country. And all by way of an open letter, encouraging him to take his men in uniform and run so fast that their desert boots barely touch the Afghan badlands.

Should the unquiet American take the offer seriously?

The Taliban has always been clear about its objectives: to see an end to the American military occupation and to overthrow what it sees as the US-backed puppet regime in Kabul. Another group that has been equally clear about its long-term strategy is Al Qaeda. Meaning that Bin Laden had always been resolute in his warning to the US that it would never know peace while Palestine remained occupied. The difference between the two, however, being that it suited Al Qaeda to have the American military deeply entrenched in as much of the Muslim world as possible, thereby exposing its expansionist aims. Today, the backbone of the Al Qaeda leadership is said to still be enjoying Pakistani hospitality.

Could this be the right time for the Americans to call it quits?

This is a no-no for many experts. The Taliban, they say, is not to be trusted. It’s only interested in pulling the wool over Trump’s eyes. With the express aim of taking the heat off neighbouring Pakistan at a time when Washington is upping the Haqqani ante. Meaning that the Taliban is doing its best to secure the latter’s safe passage home.

There could be some credence to this. The Taliban may well be planning for the necessary back up to try and drive out ISIS. For turf wars and ideological differences are not exclusively reserved for the Americans. ISIS holds the Taliban in particular contempt given what it views as the latter’s ‘nationalist’ credentials. Not to mention its ties to Pakistan’s ISI. Thus it could be that the Taliban is out to grab Trump by his big old ears and sweet talk him for its own ends. Or put another way – the Taliban could be preparing for a prolonged period of increased bloodshed.

All of which poses quite the dilemma. For after 16 long years that has seen some $850 billion go down the drain – President Trump has seemingly been handed the opportunity to cut and run and to be known as the man who got America out of the quagmire. Yet going down this path would likely precipitate the overthrow of the Ghani government, given that all competing groups want to see the US-backed regime gone. The question then would arise as to which of the region’s state and non-state actors would be successful in filling the vacuum. Then again, maybe this doesn’t matter to Trump. For with the occupation at an end – the US would no longer be responsible for Afghanistan’s security. And this might just be the pull Trump is looking for.

The writer is the Deputy Managing Editor, Daily Times. She can be reached at mirandahusain@me.com and tweets @humeiwei