Charles Krauthammer described Obama’s push to broker talks with the Taliban a “cover” for the failure of his big-picture policy in Afghanistan.

“This will not accomplish anything. The Taliban knows exactly what is going to happen… They have no incentive to concede anything” as U.S. forces withdraw, Krauthammer argued.  He said that these negotiations in the “decent interval” in Afghaniston mirror American efforts to withdraw gracefully from Vietnam and are “propaganda” by the Taliban to assert themselves as a “legitimate government.”

Krauthammer believes that Obama wants to “show that we’re negotiating our way out.” Instead of acknowledging that the war has “accomplished nothing,” the negotiations are aimed to “retroactively vindicate a surge that obviously has failed,” he stated.