President Donald Trump inviting Taliban leaders to Camp David is "one of the most shameful moments of his presidency," writes conservative columnist Marc Thiessen in The Washington Post.
Trump over the weekend announced he had canceled plans for secret talks with Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents on U.S. soil. The date was set for days before the 9/11 anniversary.
The president said he changed his mind after a Taliban car bombing in Kabul on Thursday killed 12 people, including a U.S. service member. Trump declared the peace talks "dead" Monday.
Thiessen says a meeting would have been a win for the Taliban. He also denounced Trump contemplating the idea of meeting with "murderous terrorists with American blood on their hands.
"It is an outrage that [former President Barack] Obama freed them," he said in reference to the five senior Taliban commanders who were supposed to be at the meeting.
"But for Trump to even consider allowing leaders of a designated terrorist organization to set foot in Camp David is worse than an outrage; it is an insult to all those who died on 9/11 and the American troops who gave their lives fighting them in Afghanistan."
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