“In effect, we released the ‘Taliban Dream Team.”

Revisiting "the surrender" agreement of 2020

“In effect, we released the ‘Taliban Dream Team.”

—    Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham on the Obama prisoner exchange, 2014¹

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KABUL, March 1, 2020 — The day after the bleak ceremony with U.S. and NATO officials at the presidential palace and 10 days before Intra-Afghan talks are set to begin, Ashraf Ghani rejects the terms of a prisoner exchange envisaged by the U.S.-Taliban agreement.

The Taliban responds by announcing violence will resume.

It’s a less than ideal development for Team Trump back in Washington who have insisted to allies and Congress that pushing a U.S. deal through would enhance the prospects for peace between the Afghan government and the militants.

But the prisoner exchange was never embraced by the Afghan government, and not just because it was a decision directly impacting them and yet made by others without their involvement.