Afghanistan is now a presidential election issue

The Taliban I am sure will have noticed that the withdrawal of all US troops from Afghanistan is now a hot 2020 election issue. The militant insurgents who are still bombing and killing their way to the peace table really do have all the negotiating cards in their hands. Mike Pompeo, US Secretary of state, joked, yes joked, the other day about Trump wanting American troops out by the 2020 election date. I wonder why!! Now Pete Buttigieg (pronounced boot-edge-edge), a former officer in the US Navy Reserve who served in Afghanistan in 2014 for seven months, has said the withdrawal of all American troops from Afghanistan would be carried out in his first year of office were he to win the 2020 election. What he should have said, of course, and what Trump should have said, was: "There are currently extremely sensitive negotiations underway with the Taliban and I don't want to jeopardise US interests in these peace talks by saying anything that might play into the hands of the Taliban." Wouldn't that be wonderful if a serious politician in the US actually said something like that? But no. Trump wants the troops out and Pompeo has laughed about the timing. And Boot-edge-edge has grabbed the limelight by imposing a timetable on the withdrawal. The Taliban chief negotiators, all with American and British and numerous other coalition partners and, of course, Afghan blood on their hands, must be chuckling to themselves. Negotiating with the Americans is so easy because all the Taliban have to do is wait and wait and wait until the latter part of 2020 and then pounce with their final demands before agreeing a deal: all US troops out within six months of the deal being signed and senior positions in the Afghan government, and a return to the strictest interpretation of Sharia law. All they will give in return is a "promise" not to let al-Qaeda use Afghanistan as a training sanctuary. The Taliban top men at the Qatar talks are facing negotiators under orders from the White House to get a peace deal signed by any means. So good luck, Zalmay Khalilzad, US chief negotiator. He's a good man with a ton of experience but the days are ticking towards the 2020 election and he has to get the deal done. What is Afghanistan going to be like when all the foreign troops have left? Will women lose all the rights they have won over the last few years? Will the Taliban take over Kabul once again? I wonder whether the White House worries about that. I tell you who will worry and that is the tens of thousands of American and coalition troops who fought for 18 years - many of them sacrificing tbeir lives or suffering life-changing injuries - to give the Afghan people a better and safer life. If Afghanistan is handed back to the Taliban on a plate after this long long war, what will they and their families think? Was it all worth it? It's a terrible question, especially if the answer is no.