Trump’s former NSA says Afghan peace talks are ‘doomed to fail’

President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser HR McMaster said on Monday intra-Afghan negotiations are doomed to end in failure and warned the risk of another 9/11 type attack in the US was “very high”. 

Speaking to USA TODAY following the launch of his new book “Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World”, McMaster expressed concern about a “destructive cycle” in American politics that has weakened the country. 

In his book, he offers a thoughtful critique of US foreign policy and an assessment of Trump’s approach to North Korea, Afghanistan and other global hotspots. 

McMaster makes it clear he disagreed with some of Trump’s decisions, such as negotiating with the Taliban, which, he told USA TODAY, was based on a “fantasy” and “wishful thinking” that the militant group would renounce its ties to al-Qaeda, which orchestrated the 9/11 attacks.

In February,  the US signed a deal with the Taliban agreeing to a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. In exchange, the Taliban agreed to break ties with al-Qaeda. 

But McMaster said the US deal will simply allow the Taliban to expand its territory and establish an Islamic caliphate and a terrorist training ground. 

He also ridiculed the idea of a power-sharing agreement between the Afghan government and the Taliban and said it will pave the way for the Taliban to reimpose its repressive laws on the Afghan people – particularly women.

 “What (does) power-sharing with the Taliban look like?” he asked. “Does that look like … every other girls’ school bulldozed? Or does it look like mass executions in the soccer stadium every other Saturday?”

” … We’ve created this idea that the Taliban can be partners for peace when in fact, they’re determined to establish an Islamic caliphate in Afghanistan and to use that Islamic caliphate as a base for expansion,” McMaster said. 

USA TODAY reported McMaster predicts the peace talks effort will result in failure and leave the US increasingly vulnerable – not just to al-Qaeda but to ISIS (Daesh) and other anti-American terrorist groups. 

The threat is wider now, he said, and those groups are more capable.

In the book, he recounts Trump’s off-handed comment about the war in Afghanistan. “I could win that war in a week. I just don’t want to kill 10 million people.”

 McMaster says that created a misunderstanding about the conflict and “cheapened” the sacrifices made by both American and Afghan soldiers who lost their lives in the war.

The USA TODAY interview follows last week’s discussion with CBS News, where the retired lieutenant general, who left the White House in March 2018, claimed that Trump with his new policy is “partnering with the Taliban against the Afghan government.”

“I think what [Trump] did with this new policy, is he, in effect, is partnering with the Taliban against, in many ways, the Afghan government. And so, I think that it’s an unwise policy. And I think what we require in Afghanistan is a sustained commitment to help the Afghan government,” McMaster told CBS.