AMERICA’S LONGEST WAR: Taliban blindsides U.S. forces with surprise Afghan offensive.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said Monday a Taliban assault on the city of Ghanzi — a key provincial capital linking other areas under the Islamic militant group’s control just 75 miles southeast of Kabul — has killed roughly 100 Afghan security forces and some 20 civilians over the past three days.

While the Afghan forces, backed by U.S. and NATO advisors, claimed Monday night to have retained control of central Ghanzi, local reports indicated Taliban fighters still held pockets of the city and had simultaneously swept in and taken over most of the surrounding province’s rural areas.

Analysts said the development has underscored the Taliban’s capability for a resurgence in Afghanistan and will likely increase the group’s political leverage over peace talks with U.S. officials that the Trump administration has quietly been trying to get off the ground.

The Taliban’s “political solution” is to create for itself a position strong enough to allow them to topple the Afghan government in Kabul with maximum speed as soon we leave. Call it “the North Vietnam solution.”

I’m not sure what advantage we create for ourselves by delaying the nearly inevitable.