Biden says Taliban is not our enemy

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by spence

Sounds like we're positioning to close a peace deal. Biden is drawing a line, we're only there to kill Taliban when they harbor terrorists that may hurt US interests...not eliminate them regardless.

The flip side is endless war.

-spence

First of all, let me say, Spence, that I'm SHOCKED that your reaction is to bend over backwards to defend Biden.

"Sounds like we're positioning to close a peace deal."

That's idiotic for 2 reasons. First of all, regardless of what that statement "sounds like" to you, yuo are assigning benign intentions when you cannot know what Biden meant. Spence, are you this forgiving when conservatives say stupid things? When Palin puts her foot in her mouth, was your initial reaction "hold on, here's what this sounds like to me...", or was your first reaction to insult her?

Second, while we are negotiating an end to our involvement, that negotiation does not involve the Taliban, we are working with the Afghan govenrment, which (no thanks to you) is no longer the Taliban. As of today, as of right now, we are in a declared war with the Taliban. That means they are the "enemy".

You literally have no shame.

[spence]

Originally Posted by Jim in CT

That's idiotic for 2 reasons. First of all, regardless of what that statement "sounds like" to you, yuo are assigning benign intentions when you cannot know what Biden meant.

Actually, listening to the quotes it seemed quite clear what he meant. You stopped listening after "Taliban".

Second, while we are negotiating an end to our involvement, that negotiation does not involve the Taliban, we are working with the Afghan govenrment, which (no thanks to you) is no longer the Taliban.

Rumors of negotiations with the Taliban have gone on for some time, and it's hard to think we could reach agreement with the Afghanistan Government without some form of agreement with the Taliban. The Pakistani variable in the equation would make elimination nearly impossible.

As of today, as of right now, we are in a declared war with the Taliban.

This is factually not true.

Operation Enduring Freedom was a military action approved by Congress, there was no legal declaration of war.

The objective was to eliminate al Qaeda's safe haven and remove the Taliban from power.

We are still fighting the Taliban yes, but we are not "at War" with them. Doesn't make much difference to those doing the fighting, but it's an important distinction to those trying to end it successfully.

-spence