‘Desperation will never bring peace’ – Opinion

A former Pentagon official has said that desperation for the Afghanistan peace deal creates a dangerous precedent.

Michael Rubin, a famous American writer, and a former Pentagon official, has said in his latest analytical piece, “Khalilzad’s increasing desperation – ignoring and excusing terrorism and demanding other countries do likewise – will never bring peace; rather, it will simply condemn the region to greater bloodshed.”

In this piece of writing, he says that since Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban representatives have signed the agreement, violence has only increased.

“It is against such a backdrop that Khalilzad’s exculpation of Taliban involvement in attacks earlier this week on a funeral procession in Nangarhar and a maternity ward in Kabul must be taken with a grain of salt,” he wrote.

According to him, Afghan authorities say they have developed compelling evidence which indicates that the Taliban are responsible for the funeral and the maternity ward attacks; while Khalilzad urges all officials to take his word for it before investigations are complete.

Rubin believes that the “envoy is acting dishonestly in order to keep the agreement he signed on life support.”

He says it never hurts to talk to enemies, but if one side seeks peace and the other looks at diplomacy as an asymmetric warfare strategy, talks will not succeed.

“Calibrating national security to wishful thinking rather than reality is always unwise,” he says.

He underscores that Khalilzad’s demands of negotiating with a group that believes Hindus and other non-Sunni Muslims deserve death could undercut broader U.S. counterterrorism policies.

He wrote that the more Khalilzad wants the peace agreement to succeed, the more the Taliban tries to condemn the agreement to failure.