This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Is the end of the war in Afghanistan in sight?

Maybe so and maybe not.

The U.S. has negotiated an agreement with the Taliban

to begin setting the terms of a U.S. departure,

but that agreement hasn't prevented fighting

from the Taliban and Afghan security forces already.

Cato's John Glazer and Chris Prevel discuss what should come next.

Even with a tentative agreement to bring hostilities to an end. In Afghanistan, it seems that the Taliban

has resumed some of its operations, but let's assume for the moment that that is an aberration, that there is a strong desire,

is it fair to see an end in sight for the war in Afghanistan.

You know, a lot of that depends on what we do.

So I think the president is interested in a full U.S. withdrawal. I think he's politically

interested in that kind of thing. But the way we have approached this interim deal is that we've made it a little too

contingent on conditions on the ground. The truth is it is a vital U.S. national interest to get out of Afghanistan and we shouldn't

allow the Taliban or the government and the Kabul to have a veto over what is right for US foreign policy.

I worry about not only conditions on the ground, as you said, violence has broken out despite a sort of ceasefire truce as this deal has been

signed.

And I think that kind of indicates what we're in for. There's going to be a lot of violence on the ground

once the United States leaves and before that point we're expected to see the Kabul government and the Taliban engage in intra-Afghan peace talks,

negotiations for some kind of political settlement after we leave.

...