Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai described the 20-year US and NATO campaign in the country as a "military failure" that led to the "flourishing" of terrorism and extremism in the country.

Karzai said this in an interview with the British newspaper The Times.

“The country is shocked, it is in an extremely deplorable state.

See what's going on.

We have a rout.

The country is in conflict.

The Afghan people are experiencing tremendous suffering.

How could the US-NATO campaign in Afghanistan lead to this?

Those who came here 20 years ago in the name of fighting extremism and terrorism could not put an end to this.

Moreover, under their watch, extremism flourished in Afghanistan.

This is what I call a failure, ”the publication quotes the words of the ex-president.

Recall that in 2001, with the support of the United States, Karzai headed the interim administration of Afghanistan, and in 2004 he was elected president of the country and held this post until 2014.

The former Afghan president also criticized the Doha agreement between the Donald Trump administration and the Taliban *.

“At the moment, the Doha Agreement has not produced any results.

Alas, it turned out to be a waste of precious time for the peace process in Afghanistan and for the Afghan people.

Assess the scale of the suffering that we had to endure during all this, ”Karzai said.

  • Hamid Karzai

  • © REUTERS / Rupak De Chowdhuri

From the point of view of the Afghan people, this campaign in the name of combating extremism and stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan ended in failure, the ex-President of Afghanistan stressed.

“Therefore, it is time for the US and NATO to leave.

Whether they leave responsibly or not is another question.

They should have made sure that peace was established in Afghanistan before they left.

They didn't, ”Karzai said.

Unfinished missions

Recall that in February 2020, the Trump administration entered into an agreement with the radical Taliban movement on the withdrawal of American troops from the country.

After the departure of the US military, the Taliban promised not to use the country's territory for actions that threaten the security of Washington and its allies.

It was assumed that the US Armed Forces will be withdrawn from the territory of Afghanistan in 14 months - by May 1, 2021.

After the change of power in the United States, Joe Biden's new democratic administration began to review all decisions of the previous president to reduce the US military contingents.

Soon, the White House announced that American troops would leave Afghanistan by September 11, 2021 (the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York, which served as one of the reasons for the invasion of the country).

Following the United States, the North Atlantic Alliance decided to withdraw its troops from the country.

In April, NATO issued an official statement announcing its intention to begin withdrawing from Afghanistan on May 1.

At the same time, the alliance noted that its members and allies will continue to support Afghanistan.

  • US military helicopter in Afghanistan

  • © REUTERS / Parwiz

Recall that American troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

It became the longest running military campaign in US history.

NATO forces took part in the Afghan campaign as part of the so-called International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

In addition, in 2015, the alliance launched Operation Resolute Support Mission, which provided assistance to Afghan security forces and government agencies.

At the peak of the intervention in 2010-2013, the number of foreign forces in Afghanistan exceeded 150,000.

The gradual decline in the presence of American troops in the country began in 2014 under Barack Obama.

Accelerated exit

Simultaneously with the interview of the former Afghan president, the American media reported that US troops may leave the Central Asian country ahead of schedule.

For example, CNN, citing government sources, reported that the withdrawal process could be completed in the next few days.

At the same time, a high-ranking source in the Biden administration told the TV channel that about 1,000 US troops may remain in Kabul to guard the American diplomatic mission and the city's airport.

In turn, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on June 29 that the withdrawal of the US military would not necessarily mean the end of NATO's "Resolute Support" mission.

Earlier, the commander of the US-led mission in Afghanistan, General Austin Miller, warned that the country was heading for a chaotic civil war.

“While maintaining the current course, the civil war is undoubtedly the development of events that can be imagined.

The whole world should see this as a cause for concern, ”Miller told The New York Times.

  • Taliban fighters

  • © REUTERS / Parwiz

Head of the Department of Political Science and Sociology of the PRUE

Plekhanov Andrei Koshkin believes that the US and NATO missions in Afghanistan have failed because they failed to solve the country's main problems.

“They were not primarily engaged in the modernization of the economy, social structure, they just stayed there, fought, and also contributed to drug trafficking.

As a result, nothing remains after them ... All this testifies to the complete failure of the US military presence in Afghanistan, and the longest presence in their history - 20 years in another country, which surpasses even the military campaign in Vietnam, ”the expert noted.

Now “the Americans and their allies are fleeing Afghanistan without solving any problems,” stressed Andrei Koshkin.

He also recalled that the Taliban are gradually occupying the territory of the country.

However, the United States intends to maintain its presence in Central Asia, the expert added.

“Today they say that they will influence events in Afghanistan by striking, but this is unlikely.

Fewer than a thousand people remain in Afghanistan to guard the American embassy and the airport - too small a force to do anything.

So this "boiling cauldron" may splash out on the Central Asian republics, "the interlocutor of RT emphasized.

The mission of NATO and the United States in Afghanistan failed, since in Washington this country was considered as a geopolitical springboard and did not want to really engage in reforming the state, as previously post-war Germany and Japan, said Konstantin Blokhin, a leading researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with RT.

“The United States will try to redeploy its armed forces from Afghanistan to more comfortable conditions, where they will not be fabulously spent on maintaining the military contingent and where there is no high risk of death of soldiers, for example, to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan.

After the US and NATO leave Afghanistan, the existing power vacuum will be filled by terrorist organizations or major regional powers, ”the expert concluded.

* "Taliban" - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 14, 2003.