‘Living with fire’: Can West learn to coexist with longtime adversary?

American military leaders in Afghanistan first conceded a decade ago that the United States couldn’t kill its way out of an insurgency. By then, halfway through a war that next month will pass the 19-year mark, the Taliban’s strength and stubbornness had forced the generals to accept that ending the bloodshed would require compromise.

Earlier this year, American and Taliban officials signed a conditional peace accord, the first phase in a two-stage process to broker a permanent cease-fire. The second began last weekend as Afghan government and Taliban leaders convened in Qatar for negotiations that for years the Taliban vowed they would never consider.

The war has fractured the country’s public institutions and decimated the economy while claiming tens of thousands of lives, including Afghan civilians and military personnel, Taliban fighters, and more than 2,400 U.S. troops. Given the toll, any agreement that emerges from the ongoing talks will be imperfect, neither redressing all grievances nor fulfilling every demand of the parties involved.

For conciliation to succeed,