Time for Trib to give peace a chance in Afghanistan

‘Three questions for President Trump on his looming Afghanistan peace deal’ (Trib editorial, September 5) should have simply asked the only question worth answering: “When will the US finally exit the 18 year long lost Afghan war?” Sadly, the Trib Editorial Board cannot face the truth that the Taliban has won for the same reason North Vietnam won in Vietnam: the US cannot impose its will on a nation determined to resist American aggression. Setting up a puppet government in Kabul 18 years ago never worked and never will. The fact Kabul was not even in the negotiations speaks volumes about America's fantasy it can retain influence in an Afghanistan free from US meddling. If the Trib was truly worried about extremists gaining a foothold in the region to threaten America, it would have opposed US military intervention that not only fractured Afghanistan, but fractured Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya and West Africa, making them all targets of the very extremism we’re trying to prevent.

The Trib Editorial Board has no answers for the three questions it posed because there are none. Wasting pixels and newsprint fretting about the consequences of our inevitable defeat does not help the peace process. It inhibits it.