The Room Where It Happened

Bolton’s reasons for maintaining a troop presence in Afghanistan are simple: to prevent a resurgence of al-Qaeda and ISIS, and to monitor nuclear weapons in programs in Pakistan and Iran. Meanwhile, Pompeo and Zalmay Khalilzad, special representative to Afghanistan, are involved in negotiations with the Taliban toward eventually achieving Trump’s campaign promise to lower the troop numbers in Afghanistan to zero. To Bolton, the only terms of an agreement that would be acceptable are ones dictating that terrorism is effectively eliminated from the country and that there are strong mechanisms to continually verify this.

As Dunford and Bolton make the case to maintain a counterterrorism force on the ground in Afghanistan, Trump tosses out a litany of his greatest hits, confusing former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and current President Ashraf Ghani, and complaining that it costs more to fight the Afghan War than to rebuild the World Trade Center.

Eventually, Pompeo and Khalilzad present a troop-withdrawal deal to Trump in a Situation Room meeting. As usual, Trump’s primary concern is how the deal will play politically, in Congress and across the country. Trump impulsively suggests hosting the Taliban for a summit at Camp David. Stunned by the suggestion yet incredulous that such a meeting would occur, Bolton advises Trump to plan the meeting, if for no other reason than that it will delay the Pompeo-Khalilzad deal.