Kiron Skinner: U.S. Must Deny Afghanistan from Being a Haven for Terrorists

EXCERPT:

SKINNER: “The President is attempting to deliver on what he not only campaigned on, but what he has strategized about for a number of years. He has said we should not be in endless wars. He's also understood that it’s a step-wise and phase reduction to get us out of those wars. He understands that we have to negotiate and engage with some unsavory actors like the Taliban, but there is now, I think because of the maximum diplomacy campaign toward Afghanistan that the president has organized both within the country and around the globe, a match in U.S. interests and those of the Afghan people. While the Afghan people want a pluralistic political process, the United States wants to make sure that Afghanistan is a deny territory for global terror that could affect the U.S.. Those objectives are coming together and it means that the United States can begin the process if this violence reduction period works out and negotiations follow. Begin the process of reducing our forces while leaving a residual counterterrorism force that is consistent with I think what most parties, including the Taliban, would accept. This is an exceptional moment, we have to be cautiously optimistic, but it’s what strategy and doctrine look like when Washington puts it forward."