Trump Wanted to Boast About His Own 'Camp David Accords' Before Taliban Deal Collapsed

[TomCADem]

This is classic Trump. Piss and moan loudly about an issue, thus raising tensions like he did with North Korea. Then give away the farm to solve the problem that he helped create.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-wanted-to-boast-about-his-own-his-own-camp-david-accords-before-taliban-deal-collapsed?ref=home

LONDON—The Afghan government of President Ashraf Ghani had a feeling, based on long experience, that peace negotiations between the Trump administration and the Taliban would not go well. But then, Ghani didn’t have much to say about it.

The U.S.-backed government in Kabul was shut out as Donald Trump’s envoy struggled to reach a deal in direct talks with the Taliban over the course of nine long rounds, mostly in Qatar. The Ghani government was only informed about bits and pieces of the program when Trump’s people thought it convenient or, indeed, when the talks appeared to be reaching a conclusion.

But the dynamics were obvious to Afghans on all sides, even if most Americans were not paying much attention: Trump is torn between his desire to get all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan so he can declare an end to what has come to seem an endless war, and his desire to appear a winner in the conflict.

Unfortunately, the terms of any deal with the Taliban discussed so far are likely to make that impossible. And late on Saturday night, Trump erupted on Twitter. “Unbeknownst to almost everyone,” he said, Taliban leaders “were going to secretly meet with me at Camp David on Sunday." But “in order to build false leverage, they admitted to an attack in Kabul that killed one of our great great soldiers,” Trump declared, so he, “immediately canceled the meeting and called off peace negotiations.”

[lpbk2713]

1. Trump is a miserable failure.

And everyone knows it.

[Captain Zero]

2. He is still delusional that any dysfunctional deal he can

Fabricate will garner him a Nobel Peace Prize. He can't stand it that Obama has a Nobel Prize. And count on it that he knows a large monetary award comes with it. Sad. He thinks international statesmanship is just another real estate deal.

[JI7]

3. it would be like the Kim Jong Un crap all over again. a promise from them to do whatever

in exchange for us to release terrorists or stop supporting moderates or some shit like that.

and he gets some photo ops which his dumbfuck supporters and himself can claim was victory of something.

[calguy]

4. We know this is a fake meeting because

if it was really a truly planned meeting it would been held at a trump property so so he could charge the taxpayers.

[benld74]

5. Putin was in on it. Guaranteed

[msongs]

6. just like the french and british sold out the czechs to hitler nt

[captain queeg]

7. I think a better parallel is how the allies sold out polish freedom fighters to Russia after WWII

[NCLefty]

8. How does he not understand how reviled the Taliban is to most Americans?

And Afghanistan is so unstable. The 2 guys we make an agreement with could be whacked (technical term) next week by their own people. Then we have an agreement with dead people. I don't know what the answer is but it continues to not be Donald Trump. :p

[Gothmog]

9. Great post

[Hekate]

10. DT is such a liar I thought he was lying about this too. What an ass.

Everything Trump Touches Dies.

[SunSeeker]

11. There appear to be no limits to Trump's idiocy.

To quote one of Shitler's cabinet members, he's a fucking idiot.

[grantcart]

12. The Taliban should invite him to their "Camp David"

He should go and use the power of his personality to win them over to a consumerist society based on fake branding and constant huksterism.

Then he could get re elected with a Noble Peace Prize.

Or he could go and something else could happen.

Worth a shot Donnie.

[struggle4progress]

13. Crazy

[lindysalsagal]

14. Went about as well as jared's isreal/palestinian talks.

idiot.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. Commentary from Daniel Larison in the American Conservative

(Larison was firmly against Bush's invasion of Iraq; while he has stayed writing for the American Conservative, which must count against him, he's seemed reasonable on foreign policy, for a conservative)

The negotiations to bring the war in Afghanistan to a close were probably the closest thing to a diplomatic success that the Trump administration has had in the last two and a half years, so it is fitting that Trump himself destroyed the process by trying to put himself at the center of it. Once again, the president has shown that he much prefers a grandiose spectacle to the slow, unglamorous work of patient diplomacy, and he would sooner dynamite a negotiating process than give up a chance at a photo op. Once again, John Bolton gets what he wants on a major foreign policy issue thanks to the arbitrary whims of a clueless, narcissistic president. In the end, it was Trump’s ego that torpedoed the process:

Mr. Trump did not want the Camp David meeting to be a celebration of the deal; after staying out of the details of what has been a delicate effort in a complicated region, Mr. Trump wanted to be the dealmaker who would put the final parts together himself, or at least be perceived to be.

The deal itself left much to be desired. Thousands of American troops would have remained in Afghanistan even after it was implemented. But it did offer a chance to bring our longest war to an end, and if he had had slightest idea what he was doing Trump could have seized that opportunity. As it turned out, he would rather blow up talks than not be able to take personal credit for the result. That is a warning to every other government that tries to negotiate with this administration that nothing Trump’s representatives say can be relied on, and the president may yank the rug out from under their feet at any time.

Trump’s decision to reveal the meeting and its cancellation is more proof that he cares more about putting on a show than he does about governing. If he decided that the meeting should be postponed or cancelled, there was no need to broadcast it around the world. Advertising the now-cancelled meeting was bound to annoy everyone and please no one, and so it has. Above all, this episode shows that Trump is incapable of following through on anything, and when push comes to shove he will cave and run away. Such a man is unable to conclude a successful negotiation with anyone, and he certainly doesn’t have the wherewithal to defend an agreement in the face of determined opposition. Trump is a provocateur, and he doesn’t have the concentration or discipline to complete any diplomatic initiative. The president had an opportunity to stop more Americans from having to fight and die in Afghanistan, and he squandered it. That is the real scandal here, and the president is the one responsible for it.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/trumps-afghanistan-debacle/

[lark]

16. Lies, all lies. This is only a distraction from AL Sharpie and stealing from taxpayers to enrich

himself. There was not a planned meeting. If there was it was be monumentally stupid to hold it in the same week as 9/11. Of course drumpfs' stupidity and hate for America know no bounds, but if the meeting was secret he wouldn't announce it, just showing it's a total lie.

[Roland99]

17. David Frum tweet thread on this..... tRump's narcissism is extreme!

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1171030689032101890.html

So here's what seems to have happened w/r/t Taliban + Camp David as best I can tell

1) Zalmay Khalilzad was running a negotiating process. About Sept 1, he reached an interim agreement of some kind w Taliban representatives. This was not "peace," but it was a possibility

2) Trump over-optimistically convinced himself that the interim agreement meant "peace" was at hand in Afghanistan - and then became transfixed about gaining the credit, and thereby a Nobel Peace Prize, for himself.

3) Determined to insert himself into the middle of the historic moment - like Carter with Begin-Sadat but MUCH BIGGER! - Trump insisted on inviting Taliban reps to Camp David.

4) Trump national security staff though the idea of Taliban at Camp David on 9/11 quite crazy - so Trump cut them out of process, ran it himself with a coterie of especially abject inner aides. Only ...

5) The Taliban representatives insisted on signature first, visit to America only later. There was in fact no deal, Trump's Nobel fantasy began to drift out of reach ...

6) And at that moment, he decided: They would not refuse him - he would refuse them! He would show the Taliban who was boss! He found his excuse in the latest in an unceasing series of Taliban atrocities. He took to Twitter to announce "YOU'RE FIRED" - just like the old days

7) At which point, the cut-out national security staff were cornered by reporters - and constrained to confess that the Trump-Taliban Camp David summit concept was all typical Trump vaporware. He had cancelled a summit that had never been booked.

8) Which is probably just as well, because if Trump had negotiated with Taliban as he negotiated with Kim Jong Un, they would have walked away from Camp David with Trump's lunch money in their pocket and an empire stretching to Uzbekistan

END