Peace Talks: Taliban

This has got to be a joke right? United States officials and representatives for the Taliban are meeting for peace talks. We get the idea of making an enemy into a friend. It's long been a strategy that turns the tide in wars, a force multiplier in the most extreme ways. The fracture of the Taliban in recent years has opened the door for potential peace between the Afghan government and her allies and the Taliban.A representative for the Taliban stated quite plainly the end game for them.

"Our stance is quite clear and that's the same old one....The U.S. would need to withdraw its military forces from Afghanistan and exchange prisoners and let the Afghan people decide their issues as per their culture and traditions."

With almost two decades of war, the Taliban controlling a large portion of the country and continuing to fuel an insurgency from within Afghanistan and Pakistan, it's no surprise that many on both sides have grown weary of all the death.

All we have to say is this. How quickly have we forgotten who we are dealing with? Human rights and the Taliban are like food to Communism, not everyone gets it.We want peace. We really do. We're tired of seeing our brothers and sisters embark on deadly deployment after deadly deployment. We should have won this thing a long time ago.What's even worse is that the Taliban doesn't even seem to be hiding what they plan to do if and when the United States leaves. They want power back. The question, is this the same Taliban we've loved to hate for years? We'll be blunt, if the above quote isn't a thinly veiled acknowledgment that they will return in force to seize power in the country once again, we're not quite sure what else it is.What will the Taliban be like absent the influence of Al-Qaeda or ISIS? Maybe, reasonable?We're not Generals or key strategists, we were just lowly Lance Corporals and Specialists, Privates and PFCs. Much like Animal Mother from Full Metal Jacket, if you ask us our thoughts on Afghanistan, we'll tell you the same thing. We simply think we should win.In Mattis we trust.