US Handing Afghanistan Back to a Terrorist Group: New US-Taliban Deal Called a Bad Bargain

The United States has reached an agreement with the Taliban that would potentially end almost 20 years of war in Afghanistan.

After six days of talks with high-ranking members of the terror group, a top US envoy says they have a "framework of a peace deal."

"We have a draft of the framework that has to be fleshed out before it becomes an agreement," Zalmay Khalilzad, chief United States negotiator, told The New York Times.

"The Taliban have committed, to our satisfaction, to do what is necessary that would prevent Afghanistan from ever becoming a platform for international terrorist groups or individuals," he said. "We felt enough confidence that we said we need to get this fleshed out, and details need to be worked out."

So far, almost 3,500 coalition soldiers have died in Afghanistan since the start of "Operation Enduring Freedom" back in 2001. Roughly 2,200 of them were Americans. Meanwhile, more than 147,000 civilians have died in the 17 years of war.

The deal comes after almost a decade of efforts to reach a peace deal with the Taliban. And although it's still preliminary, supporters of the draft framework say it's a major step toward ending the bloody years-long conflict.

However, CBN News Senior International Correspondent George Thomas took a dim view of the new deal, which calls for the US to eventually pull out all 14,000 troops in Afghanistan. That, Thomas noted, is only on the condition that the Taliban "does not allow any foreign terrorist organization… to operate in the country."

"After 17 years, the United States is, in essence, handing Afghanistan back to a terrorist organization," he said.

Watch the video above for more from CBN's George Thomas on why the agreement is bad bargain.