Defense

‘All Wars Come To An End’: Mattis Seeks Political Reconciliation With Taliban

REUTERS/Phil Stewart

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Will Racke Immigration and Foreign Policy Reporter
Font Size:

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis said Tuesday the U.S. is interested in “peeling off” Taliban elements who are interested in a peace deal, emphasizing political reconciliation even as both sides prepare for the upcoming spring fighting season.

Speaking on a flight to Afghanistan from Oman, Mattis said it is not too early to consider peace negotiations with the Taliban, a move that is the ultimate goal of the joint U.S. and Afghan military campaign in the country.

“All wars come to an end,” Mattis said, according to the Washington Post. “You don’t want to miss an opportunity because you weren’t alert to the opportunity. So, you need to have that door open, even if you embrace the military pressure.”

Mattis’ surprise stop in Kabul comes two weeks after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani made a significant peace overture to the Taliban, inviting the group’ leaders to begin negotiations without preconditions. The Taliban itself has said it would consider peace talks, but has not responded to Ghani’s offer.

Reaching out to elements of the Taliban that are tired of fighting is critical to bringing more than 16 years of fighting to an end, Mattis told reporters.

“We do look toward a victory in Afghanistan,” Mattis said, according to The Associated Press. “Not a military victory — the victory will be a political reconciliation” with the Taliban.

Mattis met with senior U.S. officials, including Ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass and Army Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, during his Kabul stop. He also visited with Ghani and other senior Afghan officials at the Presidential Palace, reports WaPo.

It was the second time Mattis has traveled to Afghanistan since President Donald Trump announced his new South Asia strategy in August. The plan calls for additional troop deployments, along with diplomatic pressure, to force the Taliban to the negotiating table. It does not include a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, a notable difference from the Obama administration’s approach.

Mattis was a key supporter of the strategy within the Trump administration and helped convince the president to move away from his initial instinct to pull out of Afghanistan. Instead, Trump ordered a modest troop increase — from about 11,000 to 14,500 — and has dramatically increased the number of air strikes against the Taliban and other Islamic militants in Afghanistan.

The strategy has yet to make a dent in a stubborn Taliban insurgency that not only retains the ability to attack Kabul, but likely controls more territory now than it did at the same time last year.

As of October, the Afghan central government had control or influence in 56 percent of its 507 districts, while insurgents controlled 14 percent and another 30 percent were contested. That was worse than in 2016, when the government controlled 72 percent of the districts, with 7 percent under insurgent control and 21 percent contested, according to WaPo.

ALSO WATCH: YouTube Sponsoring Left-wing Pro-Islam, 9/11 Truther As Part Of Multimillion Dollar Diversity Program

Follow Will on Twitter

Send tips to will@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel