-There is word of a partial truce
in our 18-year war with the Taliban.
It is set to begin today.
-The agreement calls for a reduction of violence.
-It's still not clear what, exactly, a reduction
in violence means.
-On February 21st, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
announced that the United States and the Taliban
planned to sign a peace deal at the end of the month.
-All sides are tired of fighting.
We've arrived at a historic opportunity for peace.
-The signing is contingent on a week-long reduction
in violence across Afghanistan.
-Important to say that this is
a potentially momentous point in the Afghanistan War,
that this is the first moment in almost 20 years of conflict
involving the United States that there's a real chance
that there could be a political resolution
or a peaceful settlement to the war.
It's important to recognize the significance of this moment,
even if it doesn't pan out in a real end to the fighting,
which, you know, there's a lot of reason
to be skeptical about that.
-They're dead. They're dead.
As far as I'm concerned, they're dead.
They thought that they had to kill people,
in order to put themselves in a little better
negotiating position.
When they did that, they killed 12 people.
One happened to be a great American soldier.
-And, last September, we were on the cusp of a very similar deal,
basically, the same scenario.
President Trump' had invited elements of the Taliban
to travel to the United States
for some sort of signing ceremony
and that was called off at the last minute
because the Taliban conducted an attack
which resulted in the death of a number of people,
including an American soldier.
-Under the terms, the Taliban, the United States,
and Afghan government-aligned forces
would seize all planned offensive operations
across the country.
The Post's Susannah George traveled to the Helmand
province, a Taliban stronghold,
during the week of reduced violence.
-So, we saw scenes line this one all over Helmand
as we were reporting this story.
This is a group of pro-government militia men
and they're walking along this road
that runs along a canal that separates Taliban-held territory
from government-held territory
and it's really just a few hundred yards
between the two sides.
This is a place where they wouldn't have been able
to set foot just a few days ago
without being shot at by the Taliban,
but you can see that they're just hanging out
on the banks of the canal.
So, this is at an outpost that's just on the edge
of Marjah, in Central Helmand.
So, when we arrived at the base, the soldiers there, they told us
that, earlier in the day, Taliban fighters,
a small group, drove up to the base
and they wanted to talk to the soldiers.
And what one of the soldiers at the base told us
is he thinks the Taliban came over because they're curious.
They wanna meet the people who [laughs]
they had been shooting at for the last few years.
As the day went on, the soldiers at this base
continued yelling to the nearest Taliban base
and, finally, a Taliban fighter drove up on a motorcycle
and the soldiers, you know, quickly ran out
and started making their way
across this field to meet with them.
They were calling out things like, "Come, sit with us.
Have lunch.
We'll bring a good chicken for you,"
but the Taliban fighter, you know, was yelling back that,
you know, all of these things
were strictly forbidden by his commanders,
even during this reduction in violence period
and he quickly kind of sped off.
But the soldiers, when they returned,
they were really positive.
Many of them were ecstatic, actually.
They said that they felt like this showed
that both sides wanted peace and that,
as the days of the reduction in violence continue,
that they'll get closer and closer to that sit-down,
in person, formal meeting with the Taliban.
-So, really, the United States is trying to use its leverage
as the largest foreign combatant in Afghanistan
to kick-start a political peace process between the Afghans.
And so, the hope is that, eventually,
it would lead to an interim government
and some sort of resolution that integrates elements
of the Taliban into the leadership of Afghanistan.
-I am very happy about the [week-long reduction in
violence] announcement. We just pray to God
that this will result
in a long-lasting peace in Afghanistan,
so we don't witness any more bloodshed
and killing of Muslims.
-We ask the government of Afghanistan
to speed up these talks and dialogues,
so that all the people living in Kabul
and other areas can live in peace, security,
and have a life free from violence, blasts,
and suicide attacks.
-Since 2001, nearly 800,000 US troops
have been deployed to Afghanistan,
some more than once.
Of those, 2,300 have died.
Some 20,000 more have been wounded.
The US government has spent
or appropriated nearly $1 billion on the war.
-One of the primary things to worry about
is splits within the Taliban and factions in the Taliban
not respecting a cease-fire
or not respecting the terms of the agreement.
There's also the problem of whether or not
the Afghan parties could ever agree to something,
if they do get to the peace table.
We don't know much about whether the Taliban
has abandoned its earlier positions
that are extremely problematic, including, you know,
its previous refusal to let women take part in public life.
And, you know, on the other hand,
there's a lot of reservations
among the Afghans on the other side,
about the potential for allowing the Taliban
to impose its hard-line rules, again, in a country that,
now, is vastly different in 2020 than it was in the 1990s.
-So it's more like policemen. We're not fighting a war.
If we wanted to fight a war in Afghanistan and win it,
I could win that war in a week.
I just don't wanna kill 10 million people.
-There's a strong desire, on the part
of the Trump administration, on a political level,
to reach this agreement, in part,
because we know that President Trump
really wants to withdraw troops from Afghanistan
and this would, hypothetically, allow him to do that.
There's also a strong desire, on the part of the US military,
to reach a political settlement because they, again,
believe that the war is not going to be won militarily.
They've tried all sorts of different strategies.
They've tried different troop levels
and the war has essentially been in a stalemate for years, now.
What the American commander in Afghanistan,
General Austin Miller, has said,
is that he could do the current mission,
which is about counterterrorism and about advising
and trading Afghan forces, with a smaller force.
So, if there's a future government
that includes some elements of the Taliban
and some elements of, you know, other Afghans,
that they would be able to reach a consensus
about having some sort of modest,
continued American troop presence.
That's the hope, at least, and so,
we would just have to see how that goes.