Giving the Taliban the benefit of the doubt.
Via CNS News
As the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan ends on Dec. 31, American troops will still conduct counter-terrorism operations, but only if the terrorists “directly threaten our people or our allies,” Pentagon spokesman Admiral John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday.
“And we’ve also said that we’re not going to target Taliban simply by virtue of the fact that they’re Taliban. So being a member of the Taliban doesn’t — doesn’t mean that the United States is going to prosecute operations against you for that reason alone.”[…]
As CNSNews.com reported, Mullah Omar just this past July urged Afghan soldiers and policemen to “come and wage jihad alongside with your own people and together with the mujahedeen of the Islamic Emirate against the common enemy in order to gain the bliss of the two worlds” (i.e. the present world, and the one to come.)”
On Tuesday, Kirby noted that Afghanistan remains a “dangerous place.” “We just lost two soldiers over the weekend in an IED attack. And it doesn’t mean that between now and December 31st that U.S. troops won’t be involved in conventional combat with the Taliban. It very well could happen.