President Trump is seemingly making good on his promise to bring the war in Afghanistan to an end. According to a New York Times report, an impending deal will set a timeline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the region, as well as set the stage for negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan officials.
But Fox News analyst Brit Hume doesn’t see these developments as positive. According to him, Trump is admitting defeat.
“This is called losing,” Hume told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. “We completely—ultimately abandoned that situation over there, partly because it’s unpopular, partly because people are frustrated with it, partly because it’s been going on so long. We are not likely to appreciate the results and the public won’t either.”
Wallace, at the very least, agreed with Hume that a peace deal in Afghanistan would be risky.
“What we’re talking about is that we would take almost—not quite—but almost half of our troops out and in return, all the Taliban is agreeing is that they are going to renounce Al-Qaeda and that they won’t let them regenerate and that they will talk to the current Afghan government,” Wallace said.
“But who knows—can you trust the Taliban?” Wallace asked. “What happens if they say we are going to renounce Al-Qaeda but not ISIS?”
“Public opinion on this is going to turn quite sharply if the scenario you described comes to pass,” Hume said.
“And we put more troops in and we continue to lose,” Wallace said. “At a certain point maybe you cut your losses. It is a really difficult situation.”
Watch the segment over at Mediaite.
