Sputnik: So a number of people, including a former representative to Afghanistan, have criticised President Trump's rejection of future talks with the Taliban, and have said that there is no evidence to prove the US and Afghan forces can defeat the Taliban militarily, what do you think of that?
Amalendu Misra: There are two things involved here: the first one is intent and the second one is reality. The intention of president Trump is to bring the Taliban down, but the reality is that they simply cannot do it because of hard facts on the ground. First of all we have seen four American presidents which have not been able to successfully undermine the Taliban. We're talking about the year 2000, until 2018. So to talk about bringing it down in one is somewhat of a pipe dream.
READ MORE: No Talking to Taliban: Trump Affirms US Commitment to Afghanistan
The other thing is that the Taliban themselves are not talking about peace. The reality on the ground is that they don't want any kind of peace talks with the Americans or president Trump or whoever you have in mind. So when you talk about not having any negotiations with them, we're the ones becoming the laughing stock here. So we have to make a kind of clear distinction between intent and reality, and the reality on the ground is very different from what president Trump would like us to believe.
Sputnik: Earlier on in the month, the US' ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Hayley, said that the US' strategy of putting military pressure on the Taliban to get them to the negotiating table was working. From your own analysis then, is this not the case?
Amalendu Misra: Well the proof of pudding is in the eating. If you say that we can put military pressure, how could the Taliban bring about this fantastic — quote unquote — ‘strike' against the Afghan people? Whatever happened to the Afghan military strategist? To talk about Afghan forces undermining the Taliban is a non-starter because they are striking at the very heart of the Afghan state, which is Kabul. So how can we say that they can defeat them if the Americans couldn't do it, how could the Afghan forces do it? We don't even know if the Afghans themselves are responsible for the Afghan forces themselves are responsible for not taking the imitative in this particular matter.
READ MORE: 'Someone May Have Got to Trump' Over Islamabad's Tolerance for Taliban — Analyst
Sputnik: Is it likely that a renewed American commitment to militarily defeating the Taliban could only exacerbate attacks like those we've seen recently?
Amalendu Misra: The fact is that the American presence in Afghanistan has been reduced to a very miniscule presence. When the United States or president Trump is talking about ‘America first' he's perhaps asking this question: is it worth the penny? Now the fact is that the Americans are not going to get anything out of their military engagement in Afghanistan. How does the Trump administration rationalize it before the American public, the taxpayers? They don't simply gel well here. So when the Americans are talking tall talk, or if the US representative in the United Nations Mrs Nikki Haley is talking about a massive military presence and some kind of outcome, it is not going to happen.
The views and opinions expressed by Amalendu Misra are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.
