“I’d give them the benefit of the doubt and say they think they have in fact killed the Taliban leader. The question is, ‘What’s the point?’ What’s the military point? Fifteen years since the start of the US invasion in October 2001, more of Afghanistan today is under control of the Taliban than it was then,” Brian Becker, of the anti-war ANSWER coalition, told RT.
Becker believes that targeted killings are “not going to bring an end to the war,” but indeed the opposite.
“It seems to me that the United States by arrogating to itself the decision who lives and who dies within Afghanistan or amongst the Taliban leadership is fact is snuffing out any prospect for a peaceful negotiated settlement,” Becker argued.
Becker noted that Mansour, in fact, claimed that he was open to negotiations after stepping in as the militant group’s head, so his killing makes little sense militarily.
“It means that they [the US] are opting for endless war in Afghanistan, something the American people don’t support,” Becker surmised.
Mansour had required the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan as a precondition for entering peace talks with the Afghan government – something Becker believes “will be the position of almost all of the Afghan Taliban leadership.”
https://www.rt.com/news/343964-taliban-afghan-leader-killed-airstrike/
