Former president Hamid Karzai said that United States and its allies have failed to curb terrorism and fight extremism in Afghanistan and “led to where we are today.”
Talking to BBC World News, Karzai said that at some point, the US and its allies “did very good” for a number of years in reconstruction of Afghanistan. “But subsequently, they began to rather than going and drying the sanctuaries outside of Afghanistan, in Pakistan, which is what they themselves reported about, they began bombing and hurting Afghan people and creating prisons in our own country.”
“That led to where we are today,” he added.
But the military plans to fight extremism and terrorism were a failure because they did not do what they should have done, he continued.
Karzai criticised the US-led military operations in Afghanistan for “bombing, imprisoning and harassing Afghan people”, saying that was the core of their failure.
He went on to emphasise that Afghanistan is not a failed state. “Afghans created a constitution, they embraced democracy wholeheartedly and went to elections in droves; millions of Afghans are educated,” he said.
“We did all that we could to lead Afghanistan on the right track and to represent it well on the international scene,” he said.
He reckoned that the failure of the state was because the authority and responsibility lied with the United States and its allies; and the Afghan people are paying the price.
Violence in Afghanistan has risen, with the Taliban launching attacks and taking more territory in recent weeks. It coincides with the end of NATO’s 20-year military mission in the country.
He said that the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces are “better prepared” to protect Afghanistan on their own as international troops are leaving the country, but he reiterated that Afghans should deal with the ongoing foreign interference.
“The Afghan forces are better prepared to shoulder the responsibilities of protecting the country on their own,” Karzai said, but added that “the environment, the overall regional environment and the continuation of interference and undermining of the Afghan state is continuing” and that “that is something that we the Afghan people need to handle and handle sooner.”
On a statement by US and NATO forces commander in Afghanistan General Scott Miller, Karzai said that the US general is “very wrong” in his assessment that there is possibility of a civil war in the country as the international troops are leaving.
“Exactly for this reason I am telling you that the US has failed. Instead of saying that they have helped Afghanistan stabilise, they leave, and the general leaving, is warning of a civil war. So that means they have failed but we Afghans have not,” he added.
Karzai’s remarks come as Afghan forces have lost a big number of districts to the Taliban in the last two months amidst the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from the country.
But the National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib on Tuesday assured that all districts will be retaken by Afghan forces.
