YES. NEXT QUESTION? False Dawn in Afghanistan?

The Taliban’s first-ever cease-fire does indicate that the insurgency is willing to support peace — even if for only a few days. Many Afghans have now experienced peace for the first time. After nearly 17 years of war, five years of brutal Taliban rule, several years of bloody civil war, and a long period of Soviet occupation, the country got a tantalizing taste of how things could be.

Given a growing pro-peace civil society movement, there’s good reason to believe there’s an appetite for more. Even some Taliban fighters told journalists they’re tired of war. These are striking admissions. In contrast, a new report from the United States Institute of Peace, based on interviews with 32 insurgents and supporters last year, found that members of the Taliban rank and file were keen to keep fighting.

The cease-fire’s popularity could blunt the opposition that confronted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani during his previous pushes for reconciliation and give him more political capital and public support to push even harder for talks now.

It should be pretty clear by now that the Taliban don’t give a damn about popularity, and that “ceasefire” is almost certainly a euphemism for “rest up and reload.”