Trump seems to be rushing for a deal with the Taliban

In the 18th year of the war in Aghanistan between the Taliban/al Qaeda/Isis and dozens of other terrorist groups and the US and coalition partners, there now seems to be an unhealthy rush to get a peace settlement and get the hell out before the 2020 presidential election campaign starts. The Taliban have always worked on the basis that they have the luxury of feeling no pressure to end the war, even though they have lost hundreds of fighters, and millions, if not billions, of dollars in destroyed heroin stocks and laboratories. They still have their fighting spirit and their ideology, they still want a full Islamic Taliban republic in Afghanistan, and the way things are going, they will probably get at least part of what they have been fighting for since 2001. Trump is desperate to get the 14,000 US troops home from Afghanistan, and has set a timetable for his negotiating team, led by Zalmay Khalilzad, the eminently capable Afghan-born American diplomat. But is the timetable too hasty? Is Khalilzad working to a Trump agenda which requires huge concessions? Could the Taliban be smiling behind their beards because at last here is an administration in Washington which actually wants to leave and leave fast? The huge danger is that the Taliban, probably among the toughest negotiators in the world will cunningly promise much but deliver nothing. This draft agreement under which the US would withdraw its troops in return for the Taliban pledging never to give sanctuary to al-Qaeda and other terrorist hoodlums is pretty worthless. Why on earth would anyone believe what they promise? Even if it's in writing, so what? This is not a trade union negotiating a better deal for its members. This is the toughest insurgency force in the world seeking to get rid of all foreign troops from its land. They can promise all kinds of things to get what they want and then just renege as soon as the last US soldier has climbed on the plane to go back home. And they won't care about international outrage. The only thing that might stop them inviting al-Qaeda back into Afghanistan would be the knowledge that Trump and any future US president might send back the bombers and Tomahawks to hit them. So it would be a gamble, but the Taliban might think to themselves, the last thing Trump would want to do, after pulling all the US troops out, would be to have to spend more money on bombing targets. But let's say the Taliban does stick to its promise to keep out al-Qaeda, is that good enough for Washington to say, "Hey this is a victory for us, we have achieved what we wanted after 18 years, there is no one anymore plotting terrorist attacks against the US in Afghanistan. Triumph, victory, success". BUT whatever Trump says, this is not what the war has been solely about. If that was the case, an end to the war could have been negotiated years ago. No the war was also about saving the country from savagery, reducing if not destroying the heroin trade, returning democracy, freedom of expression and human rights to the nation and bringing it out of the 14th century. Right now there is a democratically-elected government, although as corrupt as ever, women have emerged into public life, girls can go to school, health clinics have grown up all over the place and infrastructure has been improved albeit not transformed. But of course the heroin business has not just survived but is thriving. A real and total failure on the part of the West and the Afghan government. So what will happen if the Taliban regain power or at least shared power? Will all the gains achieved with so much sacrifice, human and financial, be wasted in a surge of militant Islamism? It's not a reason to stop negotiating peace, but it's a damned good reason to take this steadily and not rush to a settlement in six months.