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Negotiating with Terrorists

March 20, 2020

Published in El país
(Spain) on 8 March 2020
by Lluís Bassets (link to original link to original)

Translated from by Tom Walker. Edited by Helaine Schweitzer.

Only a master alchemist of lies is capable of turning a surrender into a victory in order to get better election returns.

They were seated at the same table, face to face, without conditions. As they were recognized as the sole interlocutors, the legally constituted authorities were left on the sidelines. They didn’t even have to lay down their arms. They continued killing until the agreement was reached. Then there was a brief ceasefire, barely a week, so as not to bloody the signing ceremony. Everything they demanded, they got; but they gave only a verbal promise of their good intentions. In the end, they would even get a photo with the president who provided them with such an outstanding result.

The one who conceded so much is not a social democrat in government, or someone much given to appeasement or cautious neutrality. On the contrary, this is someone who brags about the use of force, who assures us that he believes only in victory. He has shown that he is inclined to strike out at adversaries without permission from anyone, least of all from international organizations. With this agreement, he is trying to end an 18-year-old war. This is always a reason to be reassured, above all because of the high cost in lives lost: 110,000 civilians, soldiers and terrorists in the invaded country, and 3,500 of the allied invading forces (62 of them Spanish soldiers dead in a plane crash).

What started with the promise of a democracy that would extend to the whole Middle East has only succeeded in installing a government rife with tribalism and corruption, that doesn’t even control its own territory. Nothing in the agreement guarantees that there will not be a return to the brutality of the age-old slavery to which women were subjected when these honorable partners ruled. There aren’t even any guarantees that the causes of that war, started in 2001 after the attack on the twin towers in New York while they were protecting Osama bin Laden, won’t resurface. They have made a commitment to ensure that al-Qaida will not take power again in Afghanistan; but there is not much in the way of guarantees that that will not happen, or that there may not be others even worse, like those followers of the Islamic State who might attack the interests of the United States.

It has been one more war in the strange times in which we live, in which nobody wins the wars, but rather everyone loses, while Donald Trump calls for and even demands victory after a defeat as real as the defeat of the U.S. in Afghanistan. Only a master alchemist of lies is capable of turning a surrender to the Taliban into a victory in order to get a better outcome later in an election.

Pactar con terroristas
Solo un maestro alquimista de la mentira es capaz de convertir una rendición en victoria para sacarle luego rendimiento electoral

Se han sentado en la misma mesa, cara a cara, sin condiciones. Con el reconocimiento de su carácter de interlocutores únicos: las autoridades legalmente constituidas han quedado al margen. Ni siquiera han tenido que abandonar las armas. Han seguido matando hasta llegar a madurar el acuerdo. Entonces ha bastado una breve tregua, apenas una semana, para no ensangrentar la firma. Todo lo que pedían lo han conseguido y solo han entregado el compromiso verbal de sus buenas intenciones. Al final, obtendrán incluso una fotografía con el mandatario que les ha facilitado tan brillante resultado.

Quien tanto ha cedido no es un gobernante socialdemócrata, un apaciguador o un equidistante. Al contrario, es alguien que alardea del uso de la fuerza, asegura creer solo en las victorias y se muestra dispuesto a golpear a los adversarios sin permiso de nadie, y menos de las organizaciones internacionales. Con el acuerdo pretende terminar una guerra de 18 años y esto es siempre un motivo de alivio, sobre todo por el altísimo precio pagado en vidas: 110.000 civiles, militares y terroristas del país invadido, 3.500 de las fuerzas aliadas invasoras (62 de ellos militares españoles fallecidos en accidente aéreo).

Iniciada con la promesa de una democracia que iba a extenderse por todo Oriente Próximo, solo ha conseguido instalar un Gobierno de aires tribales y corruptos que ni siquiera controla el territorio. Nada en el acuerdo garantiza que no retorne la ferocidad de la secular esclavitud a la que estaba sometida la población femenina cuando gobernaban estos dignos interlocutores. Ni siquiera hay garantías de que no regresen los motivos de aquella guerra, iniciada en 2001 tras el ataque a las Torres Gemelas de Nueva York, cuando protegían a Osama Bin Laden. Ahora se han comprometido a garantizar que Al Qaeda no se instalará de nuevo en el país afgano, pero pocas o nulas garantías hay de que no lo haga, o que sean otros peores como los seguidores del Estado Islámico quienes desde allí ataquen de nuevo a los intereses de Estados Unidos.

Ha sido una guerra más de la era extraña en que vivimos, en la que nadie gana las guerras, todos las pierden, aunque Donald Trump exija e incluso reivindique victorias a partir de una derrota tan real como la que ha obtenido su país en Afganistán. Solo un maestro alquimista de la mentira es capaz de convertir la rendición ante los talibanes en victoria, para sacarle rendimiento luego en campaña electoral.

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