The Trump administration is optimistic about Afghanistan. Since the president a year ago introduced his plan—putting more U.S. boots on the ground and committing to our fifth roundof re-entrenchment in America’s longest war—the conflict has been punctuated by a key milestone: its first ceasefire since 2001.
That brief pause in hostilities “really unleashed the Afghan people’s desire for peace and an end to violence,” Gen. John Nicholson, commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, told reporters from Kabul last week. “I believe [Trump’s] strategy is working,” he continued. “So, the strategy was announced about a year ago. Within six months, we had two peace offers on the table.”
But the Pentagon’s own assessments of Afghanistan are bleaker, writes Bonnie Kristian in her latest piece at Reason.
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