"The fear that the Afghan war will be “endless” shouldn’t push us into ending it badly."
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"President Trump has a weakness for the grand gesture. Hosting the leadership of a vicious, terrorist insurgency that aided and abetted September 11 and is trying to kill Americans as we speak certainly would have been . . . memorable.
"The invitation was part of the effort to bring to a conclusion negotiations that were close to a deal, although not one favorable to the interests of the United States.
"The deal envisioned the U.S. reducing its current troop presence of roughly 15,000 down to zero about 16 months from now, at which point any commitments the Taliban had made would be worthless. We understand the frustration with a war that has lasted 18 years, but it would be foolish to end the “endless war,” or our part of it, with the Taliban once again in position to threaten Kabul and harbor international terrorists who mean us harm. We’ve had recent experience with a president following through on campaign pledge to end a war no matter what — and, of course, Barack Obama had to order troops back to Iraq when ISIS took over a swathe of the country.
Pompeo: Taliban 'Overreached' in Attack That Killed American
"And then the Taliban failed to live up to a series of commitments that they had made, and when that happened President Trump said, 'I'm not going to take that deal. I'm not going to work with someone that can't deliver on their commitments.'"Democrats would have signed hoping the Taliban would be nice. Maybe a pallet of cash would have sweetened the deal.
He said Trump "broke it off," because he did not want to "reward that behavior," referring to Thursday's attack. The secretary of state said Trump "broke it off" because he did not want to "reward that behavior," referring to Thursday's attack.
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