JUDY WOODRUFF: And now to
Afghanistan, where the U.S.
presence is now 20 years old.

Last year, the Trump
administration signed a
deal with the Taliban that

would have the U.S. and NATO
troops out of the country by
May 1. Peace talks between

the Taliban and the Afghan
government are now stalled,
and violence remains high.

As special correspondent
Jane Ferguson and producer
and cinematographer
Emily Kassie tell us,

as part of a series of
reports, however the Biden
White House deals with
America's longest war,

one thing is sure. The Taliban
think they have already won.

JANE FERGUSON: Taliban fighters
roam freely in the Tangi Valley,

on the border between restive
Logar and Wardak provinces.

The winding roads are just a
couple of hours' drive South
from the Afghan capital,

but this is Taliban territory
and has been since the Americans
left the valley years ago.

Now these men anticipate
the final phase of their
departure across the country.

MAWLAWI TAWQUL, Taliban
Commander (through translator):

The new president of America
must take all his forces out of
Afghanistan. He should respect

the agreement that has
been made. If they don't
leave, we are ready to
carry on. The mujahideen

is not tired of war. Joe Biden
should take all their forces
out and leave us in peace.

JANE FERGUSON: It has been over
a year since we last traveled
into rural Afghanistan to meet

with the Taliban. We came
back to find out how the deal
with the U.S. is playing out,

after 20 years at
war with America.

They came and met us.
Now they're just leading
us in this way. They
actually greeted us with

gunfire. That's to send a
message to the area that
the guests have arrived.

Morale here is high. We found
local commanders relaxed,

jubilant even, and with a clear
message for President Biden.

MAWLAWI TAWQUL (through
translator): There is
no difference overall
between Trump and Biden.

They are both Americans, and so
we see them as infidels. Trump
was trying to get something done

quickly and get the forces out.
Joe Biden has to do the same
thing. He must respect the deal.

JANE FERGUSON: That deal
promises every last American
and NATO soldier will be out

of Afghanistan by May
1, in exchange for the
Taliban agreeing to
break ties with al-Qaida

and negotiate a peace deal
with the Kabul government,
led by President Ashraf Ghani.

In reality, they have been
peace talks only in name,

with the Taliban increasing its
attacks on government forces
since signing with Trump's team

one year ago. These men
don't seem to be taking
those negotiations seriously.

MAWLAWI TAWQUL (through
translator): We all know Ashraf
Ghani and his whole government

were brought here by
the Americans, and they
follow the orders of the

Americans. After the Americans
leave, they cannot do anything.
They cannot carry on.

Our leaders have already
said there will be no

more fighting, and they
will bring an Islamic
system of government.

JANE FERGUSON: The Taliban
insist on calling any future

government of Afghanistan
the Islamic Emirate,

the same name as the regime
they led here in the late 1990s,
before being toppled by the U.S.

after 9/11. These men see
their leaders as ready
to simply take over, with
no room for compromise.

MAWLAWI TAWQUL (through
translator): The rest of
the world should treat us

as a government. The emirate
is alive now, but once
it comes to full power,

everyone will accept and
respect it. They will treat us
the same as any other country.

JANE FERGUSON: Taliban
leadership says it wants
Ghani to step down,

but he and his vice president
have vowed to continue
to the end of his term.

Would you support that
if it meant peace?

AMRULLAH SALEH, Afghani
First Vice President: No, no.

The only thing I support will
be an election. I prefer to...

JANE FERGUSON: Well,
that would be...

AMRULLAH SALEH: I prefer to
die with 100 bullets in my
chest, but not compromise

the value of elections.
That's why we fought.

JANE FERGUSON: Not everyone
in the Kabul government
can agree on this issue.

Dr. Abdullah Abdulllah,
who served until last March
as Afghan chief executive,

below Ghani, oversees the
negotiations for the government.

He ran against Ghani
in two highly contested
presidential elections.

ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, Former Afghan
Chief Executive: Finishing term
shouldn't be a priority if it is

balanced against peace, durable,
dignified peace, acceptable
for the people of Afghanistan.

And I am sure, while President
Ghani today has responsibilities
as the president of

the government to perform, lead
the government and the state,

at the same time, if he
sees there is a solution

that is acceptable for
the people of Afghanistan,
finishing the term
might not be a priority.

JANE FERGUSON: There is growing
concern that the Taliban have
no interest in peace at all,

that they may be simply going
through the motions to help
America save face as it departs,

and could still decide they
can topple the government
when the U.S. leaves.

ABDULLAH ABDULLAH: My
biggest concerns will
be that, if Taliban
calculation, or calculus,

is based on the fact that,
OK, we participate in
the negotiations, without
making compromise, and

continue the talks, get the
rest of our prisoners released,
and then, by such a time, the

time for the presence
of the U.S. troops will
expire, according to the
agreement that they have.

And then, beyond that,
then they will have the

upper hand militarily, and then
they will do whatever they want.

JANE FERGUSON: President
Biden has inherited not only
America's longest ever war,

one it has largely lost,
but also a peace deal of
President Trump's making.

It offers little beyond promises
that the Taliban will not allow
al-Qaida once more to find safe

haven in Afghanistan. That's
a promise the Pentagon says
they are already breaking.

Biden Pentagon
spokesman John Kirby:

JOHN KIRBY, Pentagon Press
Secretary: Without them
meeting their commitments to

renounce terrorism and to
stop the violent attacks
on the Afghan national
security forces and,

by dint of that, the Afghan
people, it's very hard to see

a specific way forward for
the negotiated settlement.

JANE FERGUSON: If they don't
honor the settlement to leave,

the Taliban have vowed
to continue to fight, and
the Afghan security forces
would struggle to hold

onto cities without American
air support, drawing the U.S.
further back into the war.

QARI KHALED, Taliban
Commander (through
translator): Absolutely,

if the agreement is not
implemented, we will
await the orders from
our seniors to fight.

MAWLAWI TAWQUL (through
translator): We are not tired.
The mujahideen don't get tired.

Remember, Trump himself
said something like,

these fighters are going to
war like it's a football match.

JANE FERGUSON: While these power
plays continue and all sides
jostle for their own interests,

ordinary Afghans are
desperately hoping for
peace. There are few places
as war-weary and ravaged as

Afghanistan. The conflict
these people have experienced,
42 brutal years of bloodshed,

through Soviet invasion,
civil war, and American
invasion, dwarfs even
America's longest ever war.

It has robbed generations
of their loved ones and made
poverty an enduring curse.

As you walk around
these Taliban-controlled
villages and really rural
areas of Afghanistan,

it is striking to think of how
many billions of dollars of
aid money has been poured into

this country, and how
little of it made it
into villages like this.

In one village we met Salim,
our Taliban minders waiting
outside while we, two women,

were permitted entry. He told us
he worked his whole life in the

Persian Gulf city of Abu Dhabi
to afford to build this house.

Now he stands in front of
it, pleading with us, rare
foreign visitors, for peace.

SALIM, Afghanistan
(through translator):

Mr. Joe Biden, we want
the war to be over and the
Americans to leave from here.

America is good, but they
need to go back to America.

JANE FERGUSON: I asked him
in Arabic what he wants
for his family's future.

SALIM (through
translator): School.

This is my daughter. And
this is my daughter. I
want them to go to school.

JANE FERGUSON: But the
Afghanistan his daughters
inherit may not meet his hopes.

The Taliban have recently
made overtures about
respecting women's rights,

conscious of their
infamy for the appalling
repression of women when
they ruled this country.

But in these areas, it
seems clear that little has
changed in their attitudes.

MAWLAWI TAWQUL (through
translator): The current
situation with women in
Kabul is bad. We will not

accept this. We will only permit
them to have whatever rights
are specified in the Koran.

JANE FERGUSON: We saw no
women in the street anywhere
in Taliban-controlled
areas, and the few

we saw at all, in the
local health clinic, were
being carefully watched.
We weren't permitted to

talk to them on camera. Getting
insight into their lives
remains frustratingly difficult.

Meanwhile, in a nearby bazaar,
men jostle to talk with us,
crowding around. There is much

discussion as to whether the
wider regional rivalries will
spoil this moment of potential.

Do you feel like
peace is coming?

MAN: Yes, yes. Maybe.

JANE FERGUSON: Maybe?

MAN: Yes, but I'm not
absolutely certain.

JANE FERGUSON: What do --
what is the danger for peace?
What do you worry about?

MAN: Especially Pakistan don't
want peace in our country,
Afghanistan, some -- and other

countries like Iran, Russia,
and they don't want to
come peace in our country.

JANE FERGUSON: So, the
problem is outside countries?

MAN: Yes.

JANE FERGUSON: As the
Talibs gather to eat lunch
and discuss the news of
the day, reports in the

form of voice-mails come in on
the phone, this one apparently
from a commander in Kabul City

dismissing the vice president's
new policy of increasing
security cameras in the capital.

There is a feeling here
amongst the fighters not
of coming compromise and
serious negotiations,

but one of triumph, of
the spoils of victory
surely to come soon.

This attitude is in part
informed by that Trump
agreement, in many ways
a win-win for them.

President Biden's next move
on that deal will impact
the people of this country

for a generation to come.
With a delicate balancing act
of pressure and diplomacy,

he will have the fate of tens of
millions of Afghans in his hands
in the coming critical weeks.

For the "PBS NewsHour,"
I'm Jane Ferguson in the
Tangi Valley, Afghanistan.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, tomorrow
night, Jane looks into a
terrifying and methodical

campaign of assassinations
in Kabul, the Afghan capital,
targeting politicians,

civil society and the
public that has shaken
the city to its core.