Never mind 9/11. American authorities are all set to exchange top Taliban officials with the Afghanistan government in hopes of coming to a truce between Washington and Kabul.
High-ranking insurgents with ties to the Taliban will be released from American custody and shipped out of Guantanamo Bay if the deal materializes. The US is agreeing to free the alleged terrorists in exchange for Afghanistan’s agreement to cooperate with peace talks and open a political office in the nation of Qatar.
To some, it’s a move that only cements what many have said all along — that the America’s war in Afghanistan, the lengthiest the US has ever involved itself in — was waged for nothing.
“I think this marks that point in time where there’s an admission, maybe not openly, that we’re not going to achieve a military overwhelming dominance with the Taliban,” Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer from the Center for Advanced Defense Studies tells RT. “I think the idea of releasing these individuals without an idea of what we’re getting in return is not really a good idea and I think it’s almost an act of desperation.”
