There are reports that the United States and the Taliban may soon conclude a peace agreement. Much remains uncertain, however. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is skeptical; his fate is uncertain given the Taliban's hostility to his government. Doubts have been compounded by a bloody campaign waged by Taliban forces as the deal has taken shape; those attacks indicate that the U.S. presence may be all that remains between the Ghani government and the democratic ideals it supports, and a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.

The U.S. drove the Taliban from power after it failed to hand over Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, who was hiding in Afghanistan. The group was weakened but never exterminated. It mounted an insurgency that slowly took control of parts of the country, a process that was aided by the corruption, fecklessness and inefficiency of the various governments in Kabul.

U.S. presidents have tried to reduce and eliminate Washington's military presence in Afghanistan, but those efforts were stymied by the Kabul government's failure to assert control over the entire country. According to some estimates, the Taliban control over half the country. Donald Trump ran for president on a pledge to pull out all American troops and that promise has assumed new urgency as Trump begins his re-election bid.