Business Insider: Trump and the Taliban are telling wildly different stories about why he canceled a planned meeting at Camp David days before the 9/11 anniversary
* President Donald Trump said this weekend that he canceled a planned meeting with Taliban leaders at Camp David because of a recent Taliban attack that killed a US service member and several others in Afghanistan.
* But the Taliban is telling a different story, saying the meeting was canceled because the insurgent group believed the US was trying to trick them into "political suicide," The New York Times reported.
* The report said Trump originally planned to fly Taliban leaders as well as Ashraf Ghani, the president of Afghanistan, to Camp David, hold meetings with each side, and make a "grand announcement" once a deal had been reached to begin withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan.
* But the Taliban pushed back, with one official telling The Times, "If Trump and his administration think they would solve the confrontation between the government and the Taliban somewhere in Washington in a meeting, that's not possible because we do not recognize the stooge government."
President Donald Trump and the Taliban appear to be telling two different stories about why he canceled a planned meeting with the group's leaders at Camp David that was originally set to take place Sunday.
Trump said he called off the meeting and any other peace negotiations due to a recent Taliban attack that killed a US service member and several others in Afghanistan.
The president went on to say that if the Taliban cannot agree to a ceasefire during the talks "and would even kill 12 innocent people, then they probably don't have the power to negotiate in a meaningful agreement anyway."
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WNU Editor: As long as the Taliban continue to ignore the Afghan government and show no interest in a ceasefire, this war is going to grind on. IMHO, this is one of those conflicts that will take a few decades before the Taliban realize that they will never succeed.
Update: It looks like the Taliban are now threatening to directly attack the U.S. .... More Americans will die after Trump abruptly ends Afghan talks, Taliban say (Reuters). Also see the tweet below ....
BREAKING Taliban/IEA spreads a statement on Trump's tweets affirming, by the way, "now that Trump has cancelled talks with Islamic Emirate, many terrorists will reach US and US credibility will be damaged"@StateDept @CIA @jrossman12 @MFS001 @rnovoa @MossadNews pic.twitter.com/mg3SRCsWVd— Rosanna (@RosannaMrtnz) September 8, 2019
