why the taliban cannot defeated

 

…the Taliban still controls much of it

And the war is showing no signs of slowing down 

So, levels of violence are enormous

In 2018, 25,000. People died in Afghanistan 

So what has made America’s war in Afghanistan unwinnable? Afghanistan has been mired in conflict for over 40 years In 1979 the Soviet Union invaded the country to support the Afghan communist regime. In response, America funded mujahideen rebels to fight the Soviet forces as part of an American proxy war In 1989 Soviet forces withdrew from Afghanistan which sparked years of infighting among tribal warlords.                                                                               The chaos created fertile ground for the Taliban to grab power And in 1996 they took control of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital and established themselves as the government in much of the country. Three years after the American invasion in 2001… democratic elections were held in the country But neither military reinforcement nor peace talks have ended the fighting. So every president in their own way has tried to win the war in Afghanistan. They’ve put troops in .They’ve taken troops out None of them have really managed to fundamentally change the course of the war itself.                                                                             My fellow citizens events in Iraq have now reached the final days of decision President George Bush pulled resources away from Afghanistan focus on his war in Iran In one of the most difficult decisions that I've made as president I ordered an additional 30,000 American troops into Afghanistan. President Barack Obama put huge amounts of troops into Afghanistan to try and knock the Taliban into a deal to try and win the war there 

And the American presence hasn’t been all bad 

For all the good they’ve done allowing girls to go back to school creating a democratic government there’s no real sense in which much of that can survive beyond the period in which the Americans leave and the funds dry up. That’s because the Taliban are now in control of more of Afghanistan since 2001 Today almost 18% of all Afghan districts are under Taliban control and 48% are contested. How have they been able to extend their power? The Taliban don’t have military might. They don’t have warplanes or tanks or advanced equipment. 

What they do have is local legitimacy .

They have persuaded many people that their version of swift Islamic justice is more legitimat than the corrupt Afghan government And they have been propped up by neighbouring Pakistan Some people will say Pakistan, which...helped form the Taliban in the early 1990s 

was too committed to helping their Islamist allies survive .

They sheltered the Taliban leadership in Pakistan. They gave arms and weapons to the Taliban to help them gain support in Afghanistan. There is also drug money 90% of the world’s heroin comes from Afghanistan 

and this is a strong source of funding for the Taliban. Opium has been a big part of the war, it’s been part of the conflict economy. The profits help fund them making the Taliban one of wealthiest armed non-state groups in the world Efforts to destroy the opium crop effectively destroyed the livelihoods of farmers and in some cases made them more sympathetic to the Taliban And more hostile to the government. The Americans installed after 2001. People will say that the West created an overly centralized domineering state in Afghanistan run by an overly powerful president who didn’t pay attention to the ethnic, tribal, social heterogeneity of the country I think all of these were reasons But I think it’s also the case that no big counter-insurgency campaign with lots of troops has ever really worked in a society like Afghanistan. in recent year Is it time for America to leave? President Donald Trump has been trying to strike a deal with the Taliban to reduce the amount of American troops in Afghanistan. Donald Trump kicked off the most serious negotiations between America and the Taliban that have ever occurred only to have decided to walk away at the last minutes As both parties were about to meet in September 2019. A Taliban attack killed an American soldier. Donald Trump doesn’t want to go into his election with 14,000 troops in Afghanistan If America is seen to be in a rush the Taliban will simply count down the clock until everyone leaves and they can take over Afghanistan. If and when the Trump administration and the Taliban strike a deal the worry is that Mr Trump will quickly reduce troops in Afghanistan without securing lasting peace .                           What’s absolutely important is that the Americans and the international community are patient and they encourage a power-sharing agreement in Afghanistan between the Afghans between the Taliban – that isn’t cobbled together in a few months But does the Trump administration have the will to do it?